Ambassador Dodds Diary 1933-1938

AMBASSADOR DODD’S DIARY

"933-1938

Edited by

WILLIAM E. DODD, Jr.

and

MARTHA DODD

With an Introduction by
CHARLES A. BEARD

LONDON

VICTOR GOLLANGZ LTD

1945

First published March ig^i
Second impression April ig4i
Third impression May ig 4 i
Fourth impression June ig 4 i
Fifth impression June ig4i
Sixth impression February ig42
Seventh impression March ig4g
Eighth impression July ig44
Ninth impression June ig4g

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY RICHARD CLAY A^D COMPANY, LTD ,
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK

CONTENTS

Introduction. By Charles A. Beard page 7

I. June 8, 1933 to October 1 1, 1933 17

II. October 12, 1933 to March 4, 1934 59

III. March 5, 1934 to July 8, 1934 98

IV. July 9, 1934 to September i, 1934 135

V. September 5, 1934 to December 21, 1934 169

VI. December 23, 1934 to May 21, 1935 217

VII. May 22, 1935 to November 25, 1935 255

VIII. November 26, 1935 to February i, 1936 287

IX. February 5, 1936 to July 29, 1936 315

X. August 7, 1936 to December 25, 1936 345

XI. December 29, 1936 to June 4, 1937 381

XII. June 5, 1937 to September 28, 1938 420

INTRODUCTION

Retrospect and Recollection

Among all the diplomatic missions at the disposal of Presi-
dent Roosevelt in the spring of 1933 none had more immediate
significance for the United States than the Embassy in Berlin.
None presented more thorny problems of policy, conduct, nego-
tiation, and spirit. Ever since the outburst of commercial rivalry
between Germany and the United States in the closing years of
the nineteenth century, the management of their diplomatic re-
lations had been disturbed by frictions and disputes. The par-
ticipation of America in the World War against Germany had
accentuated ancient grudges. The economic crisis which broke
in 1929 had disrupted efforts at reconstruction in German-
American relationships, especially as German govermnents,
banks, and corporations found it difficult, if not impossible, to
meet the charges on the huge debts recently incurred in the
United States. To all these stresses were added the strains due
to the banking and industrial crash in both countries and the
spectacular accession of Adolf Hitler to power in Berlin, with
grave consequences, then dimly discernible, likely to flow from
this “revolution of nihilism.”

Although, after the lapse of seven years, it is impossible to
recover the state of mind existing in 1933, certain facts stand
out in the record and in memory. In January, Mr. Hitler had
become Chancellor, the head of a government of concentra-
tion, in a nation divided and bewildered. For many months his
fate was uncertain. Surrounded by powerful associates bent on
curbing and using him, confronted by a bureaucracy trained in
the old traditions and bitterly opposed to his progress and
methods, the new Chancellor’s fortunes were, at the moment,
hidden from all vision, even his own. He might be subdued to
a conservative reaction. He might become the complete master
of Germany, using either the right or left wing of his party in
the process. That he was a dangerous and ruthless personality

8

INTRODUCTION

was well known everywhere in the spring of 1933, but, as the
veil could not be lifted on the future, several varieties of policy
in relationship with his government were recognized as avail-
able in all diplomatic circles, including the Department of State
in Washington.

In this confused and deteriorating situation, fraught with high
tensions. President Roosevelt faced the necessity of choosing
the American Ambassador to Germany. He could select a repre-
sentative from among the rich men who had made heavy con-
tributions to the Democratic campaign fund of 1932. But a
selection from this class meant taking a financier, a rich lawyer,
or a soldier of great fortune — a man little versed in the history
of European politics and likely to use the Embassy as a debt
collection or salvaging agency for American creditors, or in
selling raw materials for German rearmament, while making
lavish displays at dinners and entertainments.

A second class of potential candidates for the post embraced
“career” men in the diplomatic and consular service of the
United States — ^permanent civil servants more or less “trained”
in the conduct of foreign relations. They were “correct” in
matters of protocol — precedence, propriety, formalities, and
traditions ; yet they were not all mere bureaucrats. In fact, the
careerists most “available” for the Embassy in Berlin were either
rich themselves or had married fortunes; they were ambitious,
or had ambitious wives. Only innocence regarded them as
purely objective agents of the national interest.

If mighty contributors to campaign funds and career diplo-
mats were to be passed over. President Roosevelt had another
range of choice before him. Bearing in mind the difficulties of
the mission, he was morally bound to select for the post an
American citizen acquainted with the German language, with
German history, literature, pohtics, policies, traditions, and life.
This meant choosing someone of scholarly attaiinments, for
knowledge of German history, traditions, policies, and life could
only be acquired by years of study and experience in Germany.

Here, too. President Roosevelt had precedents. George Ban-
crofl:, the historian, a doctor of philosophy from Gottingen, had
served as American Minister in Berlin during the crisis of the
Franco-Prussian War and the establishment of the German

INTRODUCTION

9

Empire. Andrew D. Whitej for a season a student in Germany,
author of the History of the Warfare of Science with Theology^ first
President of the American Historical Association, had repre-
sented the United States in the Empire throughout the period
of high tension over the Spanish- American War.

With these examples before him, amid the crisis at home and
the dissolution in international relations. President Roosevelt,
advised, it seems, by Daniel G. Roper, his Secretary of Com-
merce, chose another scholar to serve the United States in
Germany — ^William E. Dodd, professor of history in the Univer-
sity of Chicago. Although Mr. Dodd had not been as active in
politics as Bancroft or White, he was widely recognized, by
those competent to pass upon such matters, as one of America’s
ablest historians, a writer and teacher of distinction. He had
already been designated to serve as President of the American
Historical Association in 1934. If his record as scholar was
little appreciated by casual readers of the news announcing
Mr. Dodd’s appointment as Ambassador to Germany, the choice
certainly indicated that President Roosevelt had decided to
take a particular line in opening relations with the new German
government.

The line, destined to prove hopeless, was an appeal to the
best in old German culture. Mr. Dodd was eminently fitted to
make that appeal and at the same time represented the best in
the American democratic tradition. He was of old English stock,
born in Clayton, North Carohna, in 1869, ^ graduate of the Vir-
ginia Polytechnic Institute, the holder of a doctor’s degree from
the University of Leipzig, won in 1900 by three years of hard
work, crowned by a dissertation on Thomas Jefferson’s return
to politics in 1796 {Jefferson's Ruckkehr zur Politik). After teach-
ing for eight years in Randolph Macon College, he was called
to the University of Chicago in 1908 and there dedicated
himself to research, instruction, and writing in the field of
American history, while retaining his early interest in European
affairs.

Brought up in the Baptist Church, Mr. Dodd belonged
to the wing of the Roger Williams tradition — separation of
Church and State, religious liberty, and freedom of conscience.
His bent in this direction was strengthened by his marriage in

10

INTRODUCTION

1901 to Martha Johns, of Auburn, North Carolina, a woman
of similar spirit, idealistic, buoyant, courteous, and intelligent.
The love of freedom which he acquired in his youth and forti-
fied by drawing upon the kindred sympathies and tenacious
loyalties of his wife, Mr. Dodd continually refreshed by affec-
tionate, yet critical, studies of the life and writings of Thomas
Jefferson (after whom, incidentally, his wife’s father was
named). Thus by disposition and training he belonged to a
specific school of American politics ; but, as a scholar disciplined
in historiography, he did not mistake his predilections for the
whole of history. Nor did he imagine that the democratic dis-
pensation had been closed by Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jack-
son, Woodrow Wilson or Franklin D. Roosevelt. About all
this he was singularly “objective,” to employ a term of his
guild.

That Mr. Dodd possessed a talent for viewing history, him-
self, and his work calmly and in perspective, I can myself testify
out of an acquaintance with him extending over more than
thirty years. It was one of our favourite pastimes at meetings
here and there to descant on our respective “biases.” When I
twitted him mildly about his Jeffersonian leanings he replied
by asking whether anyone brought up, like myself, in the Fed-
eralist-Whig-Republican school, could be competent to render
an impartial judgment in the case. After he had spoken in a
quizzical tone, with a dry ironical humour typically his, about
the “plutocratic” affiliations of my ancestral party, he could
take in good spirit a sardonic inquiry about the “slavocracy”
that long ruled the Democracy of Jefferson. With preliminaries
disposed of in this manner, Mr. Dodd could discourse out of
wide knowledge and with an even temper, on the parties and
interests which had divided the Republic since the days of
Hamilton and Jefferson. Doubtless his tranquillity of mind in
historical research was due in a large measure to his belief that
democracy was in process, not finished, and had its greatest work
yet ahead. His favourite saying in this respect was “Democracy
has never really been tried.”

Amid the diversity of his articles, essays, reviews, and works
dealing with historical problems and personalities, embracing
a wide range of historical interests, Mr. Dodd’s greatest con-

INTRODUCTION

II

tribution to historical research was on the Old South. Selec-
tions from his major titles reveal this stress in his thought : Life
of Nathaniel Macon (1905) ; Life of Jefferson Davis (1907) ; States-
men of the Old South (1911) ; Expansion and Conflict^ in the River-
side Series on American History (1915); The Cotton Kingdom
(1919) ; and The Old Souths the first volume of which (Struggles
for Democracy)^ he completed amid the distractions and dis-
tresses of his labours in Berlin and published in 1937. His
book on Woodrow Wilson and His Work (1920) and his co-
operation with Ray Stannard Baker in editing The Public
Papers of Woodrow Wilson (1924-1926), if they marked a devia-
tion from the Southern interest, were nonetheless in the
Southern tradition, now nationalized. That the crowning
achievement of his life-long historical labours was to be The Old
South (in four volumes), left unfinished at his death, is silent
testimony to the enduring locus of his affections. This series he
had designed as a monumental work of interpretation covering
the economic, cultural, and political features of that social order.

During his long academic life even more of Mr. Dodd’s
energies went into teaching and advising students than into
historical writing In the art of instruction he was singularly
effective. Unlike some of the masters in his guild he did not
regard students as disturbing elements that interfered with his
personal interests and projected works — intolerable, if necessaiy
afflictions. On the contrary his time was generously bestowed
upon the brilliant and the dull, it seemed, without reserve or
thought of the sacrifice involved. He drew out and sought to
amplify the native powers of his students, commanding their
affections by the innate gentleness of his character while sharp-
ening their minds by the ingenuity of his methods. He had the
inimitable gift, in describing historical events, of making them
seem like happenings of the day, full of life, vividness, and
immediacy. Unending devotion to work was in his nature and
neither determined pressure nor the years ever changed it.

Even so, while he was a great teacher, always remembered
affectionately, he did not seek to make disciples, but rather
craftsmen free to choose their own interests, work their own way,
and criticize the offerings of the old masters. This attitude to-
wards liberty was also deeply rooted in Mr. Dodd’s nature. He

12

INTRODUCTION

was not and could not be a dogmatist of the chair, notwith-
standing the firmness of his own cherished convictions. While
he could be partisan amid the necessities of practice, Mr. Dodd
was by nature a man of toleration, aware of human limitations
and frailties, ready to grant much of this right to others. Un-
flinching in the integrity of his spirit, tireless in labours, he must
have loved two lines from Goethe :

Das wenige verschwindet leicht dem Blicke^

Der vorwarfs sieht, wie viel noch ubrig bletbtJ

In all personal relations, whether with colleagues, students,
family, or high officials, Mr. Dodd was a democrat in the full
American sense of the word. He was not born to purple ; neither
did he aspire to it or join the striving throng engaged in climb-
ing towards it. In his scale, worth, not wealth, was the measure.
Associations with riches and power left him entirely unchanged
and unimpressed. Displays of conspicuous waste, the sport of
the vulgar, offended his sense for the treasures of intelligence
and useful living Great concentrations of wealth, which
marked his times, awakened in him fears for the safety of the
Republic and led him to seek ways and means for a wider
distribution of property — the true basis, as Daniel Webster had
said long before, of popular government.

Far more democratic in sympathies and far more flexible in
mind than Woodrow Wilson, Mr. Dodd nevertheless attached
himself to the ideas and policies of that statesman. With the
shrinking band of the faithful, he held fast to the view that
democracy and peace might become a way of life for the world.
In no other philosophy could he find a basis for great faith and
high action.

Such, in an outline all too brief and fragmentary, was the life
of the man whom President Roosevelt selected in the spring of
1933 to serve as the American Ambassador in Berlin during the
early years of Adolf Hitler’s regime. For pursuing the diplo-
matic line to be taken at the moment, for weal or woe, Mr.
Dodd was peculiarly and adequately fitted by study, training,
and temper. His loyalty to the humanistic traditions of Ameri-
can democracy was beyond all question. His esteem for the

* ‘‘The little that we have done seems as naught when we look forward
and behold how much remains for us to do.”

INTRODUCTION I3

finest features of old Germany and the affectionate warmth he
felt for her people were deeply established in his character.

Being a mortal man, Mr. Dodd might make mistakes, but
they would not be the mistakes of appeasement for the sake of
a mess of pottage in the form of temporary payments on de-
faulted debts. An Ambassador more concerned with “practical
affairs” might have wrung from German financiers and the
German government larger allotments of exchange for dis-
charging obligations in the United States, for a time, although
even that is doubtful ; but Mr. Dodd’s function was to strengthen
and rally the moderate elements in German society then
bewildered, no doubt, but not yet solidified and gleichgeschaltet
under the iron regime of Chancellor Hitler and his party. The
task may have been hopeless from the beginning A knowledge
of history, or anything else, does not permit an unequivocal
verdict on this problem in politics and morals. In any case,
William E. Dodd could speak to the leaders of German intel-
lectual life and the doctors of philosophy in the German
Foreign Office and the bureaucracy in a language and a spirit
which they could understand, if they so desired, even at this
late hour in their destiny.

Faithfulness to the record no doubt requires an admission of
the fact that Mr. Dodd had critics, with reference to matters in
general and in detail. By some members of the diplomatic set,
both American and foreign, the simplicity in style of living
which he chose, the directness and quiet candour of his speech,
the ingrained democracy of his thought and action, the indig-
nation of his spirit in fettered Germany, and his neglect of
protocol rigidities were regarded as inappropriate to success in
negotiations.

That Mr. Dodd did not prevent, by his steady counsels of
moderation, the expansion of Chancellor Hitler’s power may be
conceded. That he did not put a stop to the persecution of the
Jews, though his efforts in this direction were persistent, is self-
evident. That he was unable to effect the collection of all debts
due to American creditors is demonstrated by events. That he
did not, despite his regular and repeated attempts, break the
deadlock in German-American commerce and start up an era
of relaxing prosperity is admitted. That he did not crash the

INTRODUCTION

14

diplomatic impasse in Europe, restore the concert of powers,
and prevent the war which he early foresaw and forecast, re-
quires no documentation. Nor did he satisfy certain Americans
who sought his aid and official protection in the prosecution of
various activities and interests in Germany which he thought
not in keeping with American democratic tradition.

Gould any diplomat, professional or otherwise, from the
United States have accomplished, in the circumstances of Nazi
Germany, desirable ends? For years, beginning long before
the outbreak of the first World War, the negotiations of Euro-
pean governments had been conducted by career men, correct
in protocol and fortified by expensive establishments. Was
their diplomacy a success? The condition of Europe since 1914
offers a reply which seems unequivocal. Rich Americans were
serving the United States in other capitals during Mr. Dodd’s
tenure in Berlin. Do their achievements indicate that they could
have done better in his place? History also answers this question.

It is in such a perspective that Mr. Dodd’s record and wis-
dom are vindicated. He saw more clearly than most of his col-
leagues, American and foreign, in the diplomatic corps, the
hard drift of things towards the tragedy of the coming years.
He repeatedly predicted, despite the epithets ^‘alarmist” and
“sensationalist” applied to him by unfriendly critics, the ruth-
less course which Germany, Italy, and Japan were destined to
take, if unchecked by the concerted action of their neighbours.
He divined the frightful crash bound to come from the policy of
appeasement, intrigue, and vacillation, and he fought relent-
lessly, as far as he was able, to stop it. That Russia was to play
a decided role in Western affairs, Mr. Dodd understood from
the beginning of his mission. In aU this, time has certified, in no
uncertain terms, to the correctness of his judgment. Further-
more, amid the whirl of events beyond his control, Mr. Dodd
awakened no false hopes of American aid in the conduct of
power politics in the old style ; he made no glittering promises
to mislead the thoughtless and unwary.

Above all things, he was guiltless of that crime against
Europe and the United States, too often committed by some
other representatives of American foreign policy: he avoided
loose and irresponsible conversations likely to encourage mem-

INTRODUCTION

15

bers of the Berlin diplomatic corps in taking fateful, perhaps
ruinous, steps, on the easy assumption that the full military and
economic power of the United States would be immediately
forthcoming in any hour of trial and crisis. In that respect, too,
Mr. Dodd served with fine devotion the great body of the
American people whose interests he had at heart and thereby,
we hope, the people of Europe, burdened by long history.

As a dossier of evidence bearing on policies, methods, and
labours, Mr. Dodd has left this journal covering affairs fi'om the
beginning to the end of his mission. But it is more than that.
To use a metaphor, it casts a flood of light into the dark pas-
sages of the time now past in which Adolf Hitler was soli^fy-
ing and expanding his dominion in Germany, from July, 1933,
to the close of 1937. Unlike many writers who have dealt with
this historic crisis, Mr. Dodd was behind the scenes at Berlin,
the strategic centre of the National Socialist movement. He
knew personally the leaders in that upheaval, spoke with them,
and had an opportunity to form first-hand judgments of their
personalities. He was in constant communication with repre-
sentatives of the German government, with the agents of other
governments in the diplomatic corps, with international leaders
who came to Berlin, with American citizens, high and low, en-
gaged in political, economic, and journalistic activities in Ger-
many. As a participant in the scenes described, he had oppor-
tunities for analysis and interpretation not always granted even
to investigators inside the circle of official and social intimacy.

In all these relations, Mr. Dodd was never a superficial
observer caught in the clash of ambitions, animosities, rumours,
and intrigues which have characterized diplomatic operations
since the beginning of official intercourse among nations. He
was a life-long student of great history, European and American,
trained in the school of Lamprecht and Ranke to seek the truth
of things as they actually had been. Ironical as this may seem,
his acquaintance with German history was wider and more pro-
found, by far, than that of the leading figures who were govern-
ing the country. This is not to say that Mr. Dodd’s accuracy
is to be unchallenged in every detail, or that the stress of
instant decisions never warped his judgment.

Such infallibility is granted to no mortal. But the training

l6 INTRODUCTION

and experience in historical study and writing which Mr. Dodd
brought to bear upon his journal ar6 clearly revealed in it and
distinguish it from whole libraries of diplomatic memoirs com-
piled by professional gossips. They give the diary a quality
which makes it peculiarly sigmficant for an understanding of
our own times.

Moreover, when the history of our troubled age is written, in
distant years to come, this journal will be regarded as a priceless
source of primary information and a vibrant human document
illustrating American character in this period. Although numer-
ous passages will doubtless be supplemented, perhaps modified,
by evidence from other quarters, the permanence of this journal
seems certain, amid the uncertainties of life.

Of William E. Dodd, scholar, teacher, writer, and servant
of the Republic, we may say, therefore, to paraphrase a maxim
of Chateaubriand, ‘‘He will live in the memory of the world
by what he has done for the world.” And I can vouch for the
statement that Mr. Dodd, indomitable foe of the meretricious,
would not have it otherwise. Here the argument may rest, for
beyond it none can rise.

Charles A. Beard

New Milford^ Connecticut

Autumn^ ig 40 *

I

June 8^ to October u, iggg

June 5 , 1933- Thursday. At 12 o’clock in my office at the
University of Chicago, the phone rang. ^‘This is Franklin
Roosevelt ; I want to know if you will render the government
a distinct service. I want you to go to Germany as Ambassador.”

I was greatly surprised, and replied I would like a little time
to think it over. He said: “Two hours; can you decide in that
time?” I said: Perhaps, but I must confer with the university
authorities. I hope you will ascertain whether the German Gov-
ernment takes exception to my Woodrow Wilson.

He replied : “I am sure they will not. That book, your work
as a liberal and as a scholar, and your study at a German uni-
versity are the main reasons for my wishing to appoint you. It is a
difficult post and you have cultural approaches that would help.
I want an American liberal in Germany as a standing example.”
He closed by saying : “I will call the German Embassy and find
out their attitude ; you call me back at 2 o’clock.”

I called my wife and gave her the story. I went to President
Hutchins’ office. He was out. I then went to see Dean Wood-
ward, who was vice-president of the university. He said he
would call Hutchins, then at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, I be-
lieve. He added, however, “You must accept even if the posi-
tion is most difficult, and the university must find a substitute
for this summer’s and next winter’s work.” Roosevelt had said :
“You may return in the winter of 1934, if the university insists.”

I then went home to luncheon and talked things over. My
wife and I decided to try the task; and at 2.30 I was connected
with the White House. The Cabinet was in session. The Presi-
dent’s secretary, whose name was not known to me, carried my
affirmative answer to the President and he at once reported it
to the Cabinet. A friend of mine, Daniel C. Roper, later re-
ported that no member objected, that Harold Ickes of Chicago
and Claude Swanson of Virginia were enthusiastic supporters.

l8 JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, I933

The nomination was delayed until the German Ambassador
in Washington, Dr. Hans Luther, ascertained the German
attitude. The result was favourable and when the nomination
went to the Senate on June 12, it passed without opposition.
The German Ambassador gave out the story of my having
taken my doctorate in Leipzig and published a book on Thomas
Jefferson in German and added that I spoke German fluently.
On June 13 there appeared a careful digest of my doctoral dis-
sertation : ‘Jefferson’s Return to Politics in 1796,” in the Berlin
newspapers.

From June 13 on, I was pestered every hour of the day by
newspaper people and photographers. All kinds of stories and
pictures, silly and otherwise, appeared in newspapers all over
the country. I never dreamed of such publicity. My friends
everywhere were enthusiastic, especially my former students,
and at least 500, perhaps 700, letters and telegrams poured into
our house or the university ofBce.

June 16. Friday. I went to Washington at the request of the
President. Roosevelt sat at his large desk and at one o’clock the
servant brought two luncheons and placed them before us

The talk turned at once to German affairs. He described the
arrogant bearing of Dr. Hjalmar Schacht in May when he was
threatening, as head of the German Reichsbank, to cease paying
interest and principal on debts of more than one billion dollars
due to American creditors next August. The President said he
had told Secretary Cordell Hull to receive Schacht, but to pre-
tend to be deeply engaged in looking for certain papers, leaving
Schacht standing and unobserved for three minutes, with Hull’s
secretary watching the German’s nervous reactions. Then Hull
was to discover a note from the President which indicated serious
opposition to any such defaults of German debtors. He was to
turn to Schacht and hand him the document and watch the
changing colour of the German’s face as he, Hull, greeted him.
This, the President said, was to take a little of the arrogance out
of the German’s bearing, and he added that the effect was even
more marked, as reported from Hull, than had been expected.
It was a repetition of Roosevelt’s treatment when Schacht had
visited him.

JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1033 IQ

After this description of his method of bringing the great
banker to terms, or at least reason, about debt affairs, he said
about as follows : I know our bankers made exorbitant profits
when in 1926 they loaned huge sums to German corporations
and cities and they succeeded in selling bonds to thousands of
our citizens with interest at 6 and 7 per cent. But our people
are entitled to repayment, and while it is altogether beyond
governmental responsibility, I want you to do all you can to
prevent a moratorium. It would tend to retard recovery.

The next subject we discussed was the Jewish problem. The
President said, '^The German authorities are treating the Jews
shamefully and the Jews in this country are greatly excited.
But this is also not a governmental affair. We can do nothing
except for American citizens who happen to be made victims.
We must protect them, and whatever we can do to moderate
the general persecution by unofficial and personal influence
ought to be done.”

I had telegraphed the President that I accepted the appoint-
ment with the understanding that there was to be no official
complaint at my living in Berlin within my s alary, |i73500»
When I touched upon this problem, a subject of much discus-
sion in Chicago, he promptly said : “You are quite right. Aside
from two or three general dinners and entertainments, you
need not indulge in any expensive social affairs. Try to give
fair attention to Americans in Berlin and occasional dinners to
Germans who are interested in American relations. I think you
can manage to live within your income and not sacrifice any
essential parts of the service.”

The talk turned to trade concessions between the two coun-
tries and he added : “We ought to be able to make arrange-
ments on certain items and thus increase German exports so as
to aid them in their debt payments. But at present the drift in
London at the Economic Conference is all towards economic
nationalism. What do you think of that tendency with us?” I
expressed the opinion that pyramiding of the economic struc-
ture in the United States would soon lead us into a new feudal-
ism which would tend to make peasants and day labourers of
farmers, and proletarians of all unorganized city workers. He
agreed but added that: “If European states refuse to make

20 JUNE 8 , 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1033

tariff concessions, we shall make special arrangements with
Canada and Latin America and develop a mutual trade policy
which will give us markets for our surplus products.’’

We then talked a little of Colonel Edward M. House and
the President’s proposal for reduction of offensive armaments
in France. ‘‘Limitation of armaments is necessary if the world
is to avoid war. Norman Davis has been working on this. I can’t
be sure of his success. He cabled he wished to attend the Lon-
don Economic Conference. I replied: ‘Come home,’ and he is
coming soon. I wish you to talk with him before you sail.”

I bade the President good-bye at 2 o’clock and went to the
State Department to study dispatches from Germany since the
beginning of the Hitler regime. The same day I went to dinner
at 8 o’clock with Ambassador Luther where about twenty peo-
ple sat down to an elaborate dinner, after drinking fashionable
cocktails, except for me. There was no good talk though we
stayed until 12 o’clock.

June ij'. Saturday. In the Department of State I met Pro-
fessor Raymond Moley, who asked me into his office. I talked
and heard him talk for half an hour and concluded that he
held entirely different views from the President about the
American attitude towards the Jews in Germany ; also he talked
like an “Economic Nationalist” of the first order, entirely dif-
ferent from Roosevelt’s view. Talking about tariffs, I found
him practically ignorant of the workings of the Walker and
Peel Laws of 1846 and of trade conditions which followed
them. He was frank enough to say he never studied the sub-
ject — a professor of economics as well as economic adviser to
the President ! I told my friend Roper of this and we agreed
that he, Moley, could not long hold his confidential relation
with Roosevelt.

Later I went with my son William out to ^he little farm I
own near the Blue Ridge mountains, in Virginia.

June 21. Wednesday, Back in Chicago. The members of the
history and other faculties of the university gave my wife, my
daughter Martha, and me a dinner at Judson Court, one of the
new undergraduate dormitories. About 200 people were pres-

21

JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1033

ent, including Carl Sandburg, Harold McCormick, Mrs. An-
drew MacLeish (whose husband, now deceased, endowed the
chair I held in Chicago), President Robert M. Hutchins and
others. It was a sad occasion because I felt badly, saying fare-
well to colleagues of twenty-five years’ standing like A. C.
McLaughlin and C. E. Merriam, foremost men in their fields.
Home at 1 1, after shaking hands with most of those present.

June 23, Friday, A public dinner was given under the aus-
pices of German-Amencans, Democrats, Republicans and pro-
gressive groups in the so-called Gold Room of the Congress
Hotel.

Charles E. Merriam closed the evening about 11.30. My
good-bye address was printed in part the next day in the daily
papers. Carl Sandburg and his wife were again present and a
few days later he sent me a poem on the distressful occasion, for
he knew how much I dreaded to leave.

June 30. Friday, I spent from Tuesday to Friday afternoon
in the State Department going over dispatches from Berlin up
to June 15

On Wednesday, my son William and I had dinner with
Daniel C. Roper and his family. After dinner Mr. Roper and
I drove to the railroad station to see President Roosevelt off
for his vacation. It rained rather briskly but we went into the
private car where Mr. Roosevelt asked me to sit down by him
and advised me to sail on the Washington for Hamburg from
New York on July 5. He particularly asked me to talk with
Norman Davis who was just then returning from Geneva to
report on the Disarmament Conference.

July I, Saturday, My wife and I took a sleeper for Raleigh,
North Carolina, where we arrived early today. I drove to
Fuquay Springs to visit my eighty-six-year-old father. Return-
ing I called on Governor Ehringhaus whom I had never met.
Unaware of my work and identity, he suddenly, on a remark
of mine about Germany and in the presence of newspaper men,
said : ^‘Are you Professor Dodd?” Whereupon there was a little
stir and the newspeople at once made a story. The afternoon

22 JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER II, I933

sheets showed how such an incident can be converted into a
story.

In the afternoon I visited the family burying-ground and
saw some of the signs of the Civil War tragedy. A great-uncle
killed in the Valley of Virginia campaign of 1862 was buried
there as well as two others who surrendered with Lee at Appo-
mattox later. My mother was buried there in 1909. It was a
solemn visit, with signs of family misfortune.

I also visited my uncle Louis Creech, owner of the Creech
lands on Neuse River where I was born, though the house has
been torn down. It was a reminder of the earliest scenes of my
life. The lay of the land was quite the same; the old hilltop
where my grandfather’s house and barn used to stand was
marked by two or three half-dead oaks; and the old Horne
burying-ground was covered with trees about a foot in diameter.

A rather sorrowful day, though our kinsfolk did all they
could to give us a pleasant sojourn.

July 5. Monday. We reached New York at about 9. I went
at 10 to a conference at the National City Bank where State
Department people had asked me to review the financial prob-
lems of German-American banks, involving payment of
$1,200,000,000 to American creditors who had been hoodwinked
by bankers into making loans to German corporations. Vice-
President Floyd Blair presided over the gathering. About ten
other bankers attended.

All were concerned about the so-called “standstill” agree-
ment with the Reichsbank president, Schacht, whereby Ameri-
can obligations were being paid in cheap marks rather than
no marks at all and American bondholders were in the doubt-
ful position of having to sell their securities at thirty cents on
the dollar. There was much talk but no agreement other than
that I should do all I possibly could to prevent Germany’s
defaulting openly, as that would upset financial interests in the
United States. The National City Bank and the Chase Na-
tional Bank hold more than a hundred millions of German
bonds ! If they could be sure of 4 per cent interest, instead of
the original 7 per cent, they would be satisfied.

Then came a pre-arranged conference with Judge Julian W.

JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, I933 23

Mack, Felix Warburg, Judge Irving Lehman, N. Y. Court
of Appeals, brother of Governor Lehman, Rabbi Stephen S.
Wise and Max Kohler, who is writing a biography of the Sehg-
man family of New York. This conference had been arranged
by George Gordon Battle, a liberal lawyer.

For an hour and a half the discussion went on: The Ger-
mans are killing Jews all the time; they are being persecuted
to the point where suicide is common (the Warburg family is
reported to have had cases of this kind) ; and all Jewish prop-
erty is being confiscated. These were the subjects, in brief, of
the conversation, and I was urged, as a liberal and humane
person, to press for governmental intervention. I insisted that
the government could not intervene officially but assured the
members of the conference that I would exert all possible per-
sonal influence against unjust treatment of German Jews and
of course protest against maltreatment of American Jews. We
adjourned at lo o’clock and I took the train at ii o’clock for
Boston on a visit to Colonel House at Beverly Farms, thirty
miles up the coast from the hub of the universe.

July 4, Tuesday, Colonel House’s car met me as I walked
out of the railway station. An hour later I had breakfast with
him, and found him rather vigorous physically, though seventy-
five years old, and mentally very alert. We talked two hours
about my ‘‘difficult mission.”

He frankly said : “I sent two nominations to the President,
yours and Nicholas Murray Butler’s, but I felt that you ought
to be given precedence. However, the relations I had had with
the Butler family led to my giving his case strong pressure in
case yours was not preferred.” I did not complain, because late
in May, in Washington, when asked about my possible accept-
ance of a diplomatic appointment, I had declared positively
that I did not wish to go to Berlin where the whole Hitler
movement was most disagreeable to me and where I would be
under constant pressure, too much for my temperament- Fur-
thermore, I had said, in case any diplomatic position were
offered, I would prefer Holland where I could write my his-
tory. This was stated to Daniel G. Roper and also to a close
fellow- worker of his. Dr. Walter Splawn.

24 JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1933

Hence, House in no way peeved me by his statement. Be-
sides, Butler had peculiar claims, though I do not think he
would have been a suitable man for any European place, except
perhaps London. He is arbitrary and dictatorial and his expen-
diture of huge sums of money is not always justified by the
results. Aside from House’s story, I had heard from Roper
that Butler’s name had been urged upon Roosevelt. In addi-
tion, House said Newton Baker had declined the appointment
to Berlin. So I was not over-egotistical with the Colonel.

As far as my task in Berlin was discussed he said: ^‘You
have the most difficult post in Europe and I think you have a
better approach to the problem of the Germans than any man
I know.” That was based on my university contacts and he
seemed to think a Wilson liberal would be welcome in Berhn
in spite of the hatred of the War President. He said: ‘‘You
should try to ameliorate Jewish sufferings. They are clearly
wrong and even terrible ; but the Jews should not be allowed
to dominate economic or intellectual life in Berlin as they have
done for a long time.”

After discussing Roosevelt’s Cabinet, the Recovery Act, and
reading some interesting letters from eminent men, he called
his chauffeur and we drove to Boston where I took the New
York train at 12 o’clock. I was sure I had been wise in going
to see him.

I was again in New York at 5 and my whole family were
guests at the home of Charles R. Crane on Park Avenue. His
apartment contained a marvellous display of Russian and Asiatic
works of art. Mr. Crane endowed the chair Samuel Harper
of the History Department at Chicago has held for the last
seven or eight years: Russian History and Institutions. He
has also given a million dollars to support the Institute of
Current World Affairs with Walter Rogers as its manager
— an organization which conducts surveys of conditions in
all parts of the world and furnishes reports to the government.
Crane is seventy-five years old, quite delicate in health, a
traveller these last twenty years in all parts of the world.

He was quite enthusiastic about his work, still bitter against
the Soviet revolutionists in Russia and enthusiastic about the
Hitler regime in Germany. Jews are anathema to him and he

JUNE 83 1933 TO OCTOBER II3 1033 25

hopes to see them put into their place. His advice to me was, of
course : ^^Let Hitler have his way.”

July 5. Wednesday. George Sylvester Viereck, author of the
Strangest Friendship in History (Wilson and House), came
to see me at 9 in the hotel. He talked about Germany and the
debt problem. He impressed me as a curious sort of journalist
with whom one would best not be too free.

The German Consul General in New York, Dr. Otto Kiep,
a handsome Prussian type, came after Viereck, for a word
about Germany. I then went out with my wife to buy a dic-
tionary or two for family use

The taxi took us to the wharf at 1 1 o’clock where we met
Mrs. Roosevelt who had just bid her son, Franklin D , Jr.,
good-bye for a trip to Europe on the Washington. A dozen
newspaper men, whom I had eluded until that moment,
crowded about us. I talked in general terms and gave no inter-
view. Then they begged us for photos, to be taken on the front
deck. My wife, son and I yielded reluctantly and, unaware of
the similarity of the Hitler salute, then unknown to us, we
raised our hands.

July 6 Thursday. I noticed Rabbi Wise on board as I walked
the deck. At luncheon we became acquainted with Mrs. Breck-
inridge Long, wife of Ambassador Long in Rome, a descendant
of the famous Blair family of Kentucky, Washington and St.
Louis, and very conscious of the fact. Norman Davis, whom I
had managed to see an hour in New York, had engaged for us
a two-room apartment with a salon. The ship managers offered
these rooms as suitable to ambassadorial dignity. We declined
because we preferred simpler quarters and because there was
not room for the two children.

July 13. Thursday. In the early afternoon the Washington
anchored at Hamburg The newspaper people tried in vain to
get an interview, the representative of the Jewish Hamburger
Israelitisches Familienblatt pressing the hardest. We did allow
family photos by the ship’s photographer. George Gordon,
Counsellor of the Embassy in Berlin, and the American Consul-

26 JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1933

General in Hamburg met us as we left the boat. After some
lingering in the city, we took our places on the Berlin train —
an old-fashioned German train. Gordon talked an hour about
the state of things in Germany and the personnel in the State
Department.

In Berlin a protocol officer, some other officials of the gov-
ernment and the American Consul-General, George S. Messer-
smith, met us. We were duly lodged at the Hotel Esplanade
where I had wired : “Reserve us three bedrooms and a sitting-
room.’’ We were put in the so-called “royal suite,” six embar-
rassingly elegant rooms with beautiful furniture. But the price
was 40 marks per day and one could not complain. We went
into the dining-room where we talked a little German and ate
an excellent dinner. We were at the beginning of our task. The
Germans seemed very friendly.

July 14. Friday. At the Embassy at 1 1 o’clock where I spoke
briefly to the American correspondents about my mission, in-
dicating in very general terms the idea of making contacts with
the older cultural elements of Germany. There were questions
about the President’s Recovery Act and some hints as to pos-
sible difficulties. My replies were merely formal. At the end,
Edgar A. Mowrer came up to shake hands and I remarked
that I had read his Germany Puts the Clock Back with inter-
est ; but I did not comment on the fact that his book had been
forbidden in Germany and that the government had demanded
his resignation from the presidency of the Foreign Press Asso-
ciation in Berlin. Sigrid Schultz, who represents the Chicago
Tribune^ introduced herself, saying she had a letter from
Colonel R. R. McCormick, owner of the Tribune^ about
Martha.

I next met representatives of the German press, about twenty
people. I read them a brief statement in German which was
printed the next day in all the leading German papers. It so
happened I had just read the Minister of Economics Kurt
Schmitt’s careful statement about economic recovery, which
appealed to me as most statesmanlike, and when questions were
asked, I referred to his work as very similar to the Recovery
programme in the United States. When asked whether I had

JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1033 27

seen the statement of the Familienblatt of Hamburg to the effect
that I had come to Germany to rectify the wrongs to the Jews,
I read a brief disavowal which was likewise printed verbatim.

July rj. Saturday, I was presented today at the Foreign
Office where I talked with Freiherr Konstantin von Neurath,
the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and found him most agree-
able. President Paul von Hindenburg, reported unwell, was at
his estate near Neudeck in East Prussia and is not expected
to appear in Berlin until September i. The introduction to the
Foreign Office was to enable me to act officially and to sign
papers and reports for Washington. I rather preferred this to
an immediate reception because the work in Berlin was of
course new to me and the situation tense.

A Mr. Rowe, attorney for the Irving Trust Company of
New York, called to ask, almost demand, my intervention with
the German Reichsbank against possible or probable discrimina-
tion in repaying a $100,000,000 loan which the International
Match Company had made to German business concerns. The
Germans were proposing to discharge their obligations with
something less than full payment to American creditors, who
were being paid perhaps a third of the amounts borrowed.

I simply said : The government of the United States is in
no way connected with these loans and all we can do here is to
suggest unofficially to the authorities that it will injure Ger-
man economic standing to violate Reichsbank agreements. He
was very disgruntled, saying he would fly to London that
afternoon. We had dinner with the Gordons, about twenty
people present. Ve ry dull.

July ly, Monday, Louis P. Lochner, of the Associated Press,
called to pay his respects. He said that a friend of Chancellor
Adolf Hitler wished Lochner to bring me to a quiet, secret
luncheon where I might talk with the ‘‘Fuehrer,” as everyone
calls the dictator.

July 18, Tuesday. Lieutenant-Colonel Jacob Wuest, Captain
Hugh Rowan, Captain Chester Keppler and Commodore How-
ard Bode, all of the Army and Navy staffs, came to pay their

28 JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, I933

respects, very correct in cutaways and top hats. At 5 Von Neu-
rath and the protocol chief returned my official call and we
discussed at some length the unsuccessful efforts of the German
Government to relieve unemployment. Von Neurath said the
various settlements of city people on the land had failed. He
was about to leave for Bavaria to visit the Fuehrer. The rumour
in the Embassy was that the Minister for Foreign Affairs would
be removed.

July 22. Saturday, German Ambassador Hans Luther, who
was supposed to be recalled from Washington, came in at 1 1
o’clock to say good-bye. He informed me he was returning to
Washington and wished visas for two guests who are planning
to spend a year in America.

He talked at length about Hitler’s recovery work; it could
not succeed without free land ; he thought the plains of East
Africa or the highlands of Brazil ought to be opened to all
German unemployed who are willing to emigrate (he thought
there would be a considerable number), those who are restless
and ambitious. Also he held the opinion that lower tariffs be-
tween Germany and the United States would aid recovery of
industrial prosperity. He showed no belligerent spirit towards
France and did not mention the Polish Corridor.

The William A. Nitzes, colleagues of mine in Chicago, asked
us by letter particularly to meet their friends, Mrs. Henry
Wood and her family, in Potsdam. Mrs. Wood was the wife
of a famous professor at Johns Hopkins when the Nitzes lived
in Baltimore. Consequently we all drove out to Potsdam this
afternoon to call on the Wood family. They lived in a beauti-
ful mansion. We arrived a little after 4. There was a tea.
Everybody stood up in good Hohenzollern style until they
were led into a large dining-room, with tapestries on the walls.
About twenty people sat down. We had sandwiches and so
forth, and talked English and German all intermingled; a
number of representatives of old baronial families were present
The conversation was good but not very clever or learned, and
t he tone was quite Hitlerit e.

July 24, Monday, Representative Sam McReynolds of Ten-

JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1933 29

nessee, a member of the American delegation to the Economic
Conference in London, led a party including George Messer-
smith, George A. Gordon and others of the Embassy staff to
the so-called Blucher Palace — an enormous, antiquated struc-
ture purchased by the State Department on the recommenda-
tion of a committee of Congress headed by Representative
Porter at a cost of $1,700,000. It was intended for a great offi-
cial and residential home of the diplomatic and consular ser-
vices here, like that in Paris. My predecessor, Frederic M.
Sackett, Jr., supported by Senator Swanson, a year ago refused
an offer of the original owners to cancel the purchase contract
if they were allowed to receive the insurance money then pay-
able for damages due to a fire which caused a large part of the
roof to fall in. Although Sackett and Swanson were urged by
all the Embassy staff to give up the palace and save the govern-
ment a vast sum of money, they insisted on completing the
deal.

It was this building that McReynolds and the rest of us now
visited with a view to a possible investigation by the next session
of Congress. We spent an hour going through the dilapidated
structure and concluded that the government would do well to
sell at $500,000, losing $1,200,000 This was the unanimous
vote of all concerned.

In the afternoon Mr. Messersmith asked me to his office
to talk with McReynolds, himself and Mr. Gordon. When I
had been in the office a few minutes, Gordon called on the
phone to say he could not attend. It was clear from what was
said that he was indignant that Messersmith should have an
official conference in his office. Later it was made plain by Gor-
don that he thought I had degraded myself by participating in
discussion anywhere but in the Embassy office. He is an indus-
trious career man with punctilio developed to the nth degree.

July 26, Wednesday, This morning Frederick Oechsner,
United Press correspondent, revealed the usual intense feeling
of most American newspaper folk towards the new German
government. A little later two Chase National Bank officials
called to discuss German financial contracts for paying Ameri-
can debts. They acknowledged the foolishness of loans in 1926

30 JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, I933

based on the Dawes plan expectations, billions loaned on doubt-
ful security.

Edgar Mowrer called at 12 and asked me to a luncheon,
quite private, at his house, where I met a young Von Moltke,
grandson of the famous general, and Rosenstock, a Jewish pro-
fessor in the University of Breslau, now in the German Foreign
Office Since they showed extraordinary understanding of his-
tory, I directed the conversation along scholarly lines rather
than those of sharp governmental criticism, conscious of the
danger of being quoted.

In the afternoon Professor Otto Hoetzsch of the University
of Berlin, former member of the Reichstag and well-known
internationalist, called. He talked of his visit to Williamstown
in 1928 or 1929, of his visit to Mr. Hoover in the White
House, and of his comparative satisfaction with the Hitler re-
gime. So far nearly all university men seem to acquiesce in
their own intimidation, but one sees that it is fear of unem-
ployed status rather than a willing surrender.

One of the many social worker folk who can never see two
sides of any problem came in to recount her experiences study-
ing German ^‘siedlungen” (setdements) for unemployed
around industrial centres. She thought them almost ideal solu-
tions of the unemployment problem.

July 28. Friday. Dr. Fritz Haber, perhaps the foremost
chemist in Germany, brought a letter from Henry Morgen-
thau, Jr., of New York and told the saddest story of Jewish
persecution I have yet heard. He is sixty-five years old, has seri-
ous heart trouble, and has been dismissed from his position
without the pension to which he was entitled under the law
prior to the Nazi regime. He wished to know the possibilities
in America for emigrants with distinguished records here in
science. I could only say that the law allowed none now, the
quota being filled. I promised to write the Department of
Labour to know if any favourable ruling might be made for such
people. As he said good-bye, he insisted that I be careful in
mentioning his case, as consequences might be bad. Poor old
man, thought I, though he is only one year older than myself.
He was going to Spain to see if there was any possibility there.

JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1033 3I

Such treatment can only bring evil to the government which
practises such terrible cruelty.

July 31. Monday. I wrote a letter to Daniel C. Roper de-
scribing in some detail the characters of some of the men in the
diplomatic service, their false notion of their real functions, the
effects of several rich men here as ambassadors and the sharp
rivalries of counsellors and consul-generals.

August J. Tuesday. Joseph E. Ridder, son of the man of
the same name who owned and edited the New York Staats-
zeitung during the Wilson era, called at ii. The Staatszeitung
is now his property. He explained the difficult position of this
paper in 1914 when German- Americans demanded it support
the Hohenzollern policy while New Yorkers were swinging
more and more towards the Allied side. In the end, the Staats-
zeitung gave its allegiance to Wilson and his admimstration. I
asked him about George Sylvester Viereck and his connections
with German propagandists. He said ^Hhe German Govern-
ment gave Viereck $100,000 to push their cause,’’ adding that
the recipient did not really render Germany any important
service. The Ridders do not fancy Viereck. They are now
enthusiastic supporters of President Roosevelt.

Walter S. Rogers was the next visitor. His principal wish is
to have the Embassy accept one of the Fellows of the Insti-
tute of Current World Affairs, of which he is the director, to
study the strange emotional life of Germany and submit a re-
port which is to be kept confidential in his New York office, a
copy to be sent to the State Department for the information of
government officials. I was too new in my position to make
any promises, nor could I see how such a student could do
more than a mere historian, for the German authorities will
not think of giving free access to their documents, or even to
their labour and other camps, to their political opponents. The
newspapers tell nothing except by indirect suggestion. They are
all under government control. I told him I would think the
matter over and write him later.

August 2. Wednesday. In bed with a cold. But the Consul-
General came to report on another case : A young New York

32 JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1933

Student in one of the German universities who had avowed
himself a Communist had been arrested about July i and kept
incommunicado in spite of all the efforts of the Consul Gen-
eral. About July 24, Messersmith sent his assistant to visit
him and ascertain the facts. The newspaper men had learned
most of the facts and wished to feature the matter in the Ameri-
can press.

A little later in the day Edgar Mowrer and young H. R.
Knickerbocker came to me and wished permission to publish
the story in the Chicago Daily News and the New York Post
They did not tell me what I learned later, that they had
already cabled the story to their papers. Nor did Messersmith
tell me that he had given them permission.

The next day he was brought to Berlin for examination and
it soon developed that he was guilty of the German charges
and an indiscreet sort of fellow. He was released and hastened
off secretly to New York. The facts now reported, the news-
papers so much concerned declined to feature the story and
he disappeared entirely from the scene. It was a characteristic
incident.

August 3, Thursday Mr. Gustav Oberlaender, founder of
the Oberlaender Trust which sends a group of young scholars
to Germany each year to study life and institutions, came to
call. He said he was about to abandon his venture on the advice
of his directors. The reason was the cruelties inflicted by the
government on Jews. He asked my advice.

I said : Do not cease your work ; it’s a good time to study
Germany; besides the Jewish troubles may not continue. He
went out doubting still. He was on his way to see Adolf Hitler,
and would then decide. He is one of the many wealthy Jews
who were more German than the Germans during the World
War and who gave huge sums to all kinds of undertakings.
Now he is naturally embarrassed that his race is so ruthlessly
treated. But, I feel, why not give the proceeds of millions of
invested dollars to young Americans to study German life and
institutions.

At 11.30 Karl von Wiegand, for twenty-five years Hearst
correspondent in Germany and now with the whole of Europe

JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER I I, I933 33

for his terrain, called. I had received a letter from Colonel
House about him. He impressed me most favourably. He is a
rather close friend of the exiled Kaiser; he was also intimate
with the leaders of the German Repubhc; later sympathetic
with the Hitler group, he is quite well acquainted with Von
Hindenburg. He told me that in April, 1918, when the Ger-
mans were so near Paris, and a little later when French work-
ing-men, 400,000 strong, were on strike, he had a visa from
the American Government and was authorized by Colonel
House to go to Sweden, whence he was to go to Germany to
prepare preliminary terms for a separate peace. He said Colonel
House had cabled for permission and that House awaited
events before authorizing his departure. The turn of the tide
prevented Von Wiegand’s mission. Clemenceau settled the
strike and restored the morale of the French army.

No mention of anything like this has ever been made in any
history of the war I have seen ; nor is there reference to it in
House’s Diary. I doubt the accuracy of the story. But Von
Wiegand impressed me as the sort of man well enough in-
formed to consult on occasion.

August 5. Saturday. Professor R. G. Harrison of Yale Uni-
versity called. He seemed to be about seventy years old. He
reported that a distinguished woman professor of Berlin Uni-
versity, who had been under strict United States Government
surveillance at Yale during the war as a possible German spy,
was in jail as a Jewess and dismissed from her position. Harri-
son thought so well of her that he asked whether I could
intervene. As she was a German citizen I could make no move.
He said there was a great conference of scientists (biological,
I believe) to be held at Oxford in two weeks. This woman was
the executive secretary and there would be world- wide criticism
of Germany if she were detained. ‘^Can you put me in contact
with any German official so that I can lay the facts before him?”

I sent him to Consul-General Messersmith. That afternoon the
Consul-General introduced Harrison over the phone to the
Secret Police Chief, Rolf Diels. Messersmith said: 'Tt is not
our affair. I simply wish you to know the circumstances and
possible consequences.” Diels said: ‘‘Tell the Herr Pro-

B

34 JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, I933

fessor to come to dine tomorrow; we will see what can be
done.’’

A stranger figure came at 11.30: Professor John F. Coar,
according to ‘^Who’s Who” a distinguished professor of Ger-
man Literature and Philosophy in Canada, but born seventy-
two years before, of American parents, in Berlin. He is retired
on a pension and lives near Boston. He is lame in one leg,
dignified and agreeable.

He wished to speak in all confidence. He told me he had
been a personal friend of Adolf Hitler and he had advised
Hitler against the putsch in Bavaria in 1923. Hitler still
granted him interviews and he wished to go to the Reichskanz-
ler’s summer place in Bavaria in a few days. He offered to
bring back an accurate report on the Hitler conversation, if I
would give him a note to President Roosevelt to whom he
wished to make a final report.

August g. Wednesday, Professor Coar came again, saying he
was going away on the nth or 12th, Friday or Saturday, to
visit Hitler. The chief Nazi Party adviser, Rudolf Hess, was
taking him by airplane. He presented a brief letter to Presi-
dent Roosevelt which he wished me to read and then put into
the next pouch to Washington. I agreed and he departed quite
anxious about Germany’s foreign policy and somewhat hopeful
that he could influence the Chancellor. I told him the Jewish
problem must be solved in a different way; that German ex-
ports would continue to fall if the ruthlessness were not aban-
doned ; and that the belhgerent tone of German conduct would
almost certainly lead to international boycott. I concluded : The
Nazis do not seem to me to know what are the natural conse-
quences of ruthless procedure. Coar agreed entirely.

August 10, Thursday, David Levinson, Jewish lawyer from
Philadelphia who looks definitely Jewish and who has played
a role in civil liberties cases m the United States, came to call.
He had power of attorney for the defence in the Reichstag
fire case which is to be tried in Leipzig on September 21. He
wished a letter to some German authority which he might use
in his application for a place on the defence side of the trial.

JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1033 35

I could not give him the letter but suggested that he call on
Louis P. Lochner, Associated Press correspondent.

August II. Friday. The brother of a former German official
came to talk over the problem of the Carnegie Foundation
plan for a new chair in the Umversity of Berlin and for better
international understanding. He at once revealed anxiety for his
own safety, talked of possible contacts with eminent German
scholars who are not a little distressed over Nazi coercion of
university life, and said that when the opportunity offers, these
men will reveal themselves as champions of submerged cul-
tural Germany. I was sorry indeed to see such an able and
competent young scholar under such duress.

Winthrop W. Aldrich, President of the Chase National
Bank, New York, came at 11.30 to express satisfaction with
the German financial plan under which repudiation of German
bonds sold to Americans would not be announced. He was not
completely satisfied, but measurably so. He said : ‘^How unfor-
tunate for us were those loans!’’ But he was on his way to
Hitler’s quarters with Reichsbank president Schacht and the
Minister of Economics Schmitt. He would let me know what
the Reichskanzler’s policy was.

Late in the afternoon Messersmith and directors of the
United States Lines came to report the foolish order of German-
American lines, supported by the government, to the effect that
nobody leaving Germany might buy tickets for any transporta-
tion costing more than 200 marks, i.e.^ on any but German
ships. This would compel all travellers to take ship on German
lines. The order would promptly put American and British
companies out of competition. I sent a cable at once to Wash-
ington. The State Department moved slowly, but American
shipping interests gave notice in New York that all American
travellers would be advised to avoid German lines. In a few
days the German Government announced abandonment of their
policy and gave a lame excuse. It is another illustration of Nazi
clumsiness in international affairs.

August 13. Sunday. We drove southward today to Witten-
berg and Leipzig over the Potsdam road, arriving at the Luther

36 JUNE 83 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1033

church at ii o’clock. We could not enter because the doors
were barred against travellers^ unlike my experience of 1898 or
1899 when I visited this ancient Reformation town. In those
days I participated in or sat through the service.

Not much of the Luther spirit remains now. The town is
four times as large as in 1899 — an industrial centre. Noticing a
Nazi parade, I happened to catch the expression of an onlook-
ing policeman. It was not approving. After an hour, loitering
about the older parts of the town, we drove on towards Leipzig.
We arrived at one o’clock and drove to the old Market Place
and then went to Auerbach’s Keller for dinner — an excellent
meal for 3 marks without wine, which I do not drink save on
formal occasions and then only a small amount.

William and Martha drove on later towards Munich, a young
journalist, Quentin Reynolds, of the Hearst service, being
with them. Mattie, my wife, and I rested in the hotel some
hours and went to the old Market House restaurant for supper
where we got a good meal for 2 marks. Afterwards we took a
walk about the old, narrow streets to Das Alte Theater, where
I used to see in my student days Lessing, Schiller and Goethe
adapted to children’s needs. It had been my way of trying to
learn German. We strolled through the famous Bruhlstrasse,
headquarters for centuries of Jewish merchants and fur auc-
tioneers, and back to our hotel where we retired unrecognized
by anybody and so most comfortable.

August 14. Monday. We joined a party of sightseers and
were driven over the city until 12.30. We saw the different
divisions of the university and the abandoned palaces of the
wealthy who lost their fortunes in the World War or immedi-
ately thereafter. It was a dreary section of the city. One great
mansion after another was a solemn reminder of the follies
the great men of 1914 allowed to be perpetrated.

The most imposing structure in the city is the massive monu-
ment to the German victory of Leipzig over Napoleon I in
October, 1813, when 80,000 men were killed and buried or
their bodies thrown into the Plisse river. The huge stone tower
was built in 1913-14 by the Imperial Government. One climbs
the immense stairs to a resting place, then enters the tower and

JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1933 37

climbs about fifty feet more to a corridor around the inside of
the building and under the dome. There our party paused to
hear Nazi as well as Imperial propaganda about the power and
heroism of the German people. Four huge stone figures are
supposed to tell the story. One of them represents a mother
nursing twin children at her huge breasts; another shows a
philosopher-teacher with a German youth sitting at his feet;
another represents the God of War; and the fourth is a gener-
ous soul lending aid to the poor and helpless. It was all most
interesting to one who could keep in mind the ambitions and
the blunders of the German folk. The suggestive explanations
of the guide were distinctly Nazi in character.

When the tour was over we paid our bill at the hotel, after
a little visit to the main hall of the university, and took a train
for Berlin where we arrived about 5 o’clock.

August 16. Wednesday. Professor Goar came again to de-
scribe his visit* with Hitler, He had spent two hours with the
Chancellor, with Hess as a witness. Goar reported that Hitler
talked wildly about destroying all Jews, insisting that no other
nation had any right to protest and that Germany was showing
the world how to rid itself of its greatest curse. He considered
himself a sort of Messiah. He would re-arm Germany, absorb
Austria and finally move the capital to Munich. There were
other and equally important points, but Coar was not at liberty
to mention them. He thought Hitler had no comprehension of
foreign attitudes or the significance of the economic effects of
his Jewish programme.

At dinner James McDonald and his wife talked well. With
them were the Messersmiths and the Mowrers. There was
some discussion of Mowrer’s trouble on account of his stories
of Nazi behaviour towards all foreigners who do not salute or
who look like Jews. Mowrer is under instructions to leave Ger-
many on September 6. I felt at the end that Mowrer was al-
most as vehement, in his way, as the Nazis, but I could under-
stand his point of view.

August 18, Friday, Forty representatives of the American
Women’s Club of Berlin came to pay their respects and to

38 JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER I I, 1933

listen to Mr. Gordon talk a little about the situation in Ger-
many under Nazi rule.

At 9 o’clock Fritz, the butler in our new mansion — rather
the old one where we live in a manner which requires a butler —
reported that a Professor Langbeine wished to speak to me
over the telephone. When I took up the receiver I recognized
the voice of Professor Goar, who is long-legged ! He reported
that a friend of his and Hess had returned from a visit to the
Fuehrer, but he called the Fuehrer No. i, Hess No. 2 and his
friend No. 3. There was no change in Hitler’s attitude. He
spoke without in any way allowing a possible eavesdropper to
grasp his meaning or anybody’s name, I wonder what game he
is playing. Such is the German situation, and I am learning.

August ig, Saturday. I received an invitation today from
the *F oreign Office asking me, as well as all other members of
the diplomatic corps, to attend a great demonstration meeting
of the Nazi Party and its Fuehrer in Nurnberg', September 2
and 3. Elaborate train and hotel service was offered at the
expense of the government. It was plain that the invitation
came by order of the Hitler chiefs and the word “Partei”
(Party) was used three times in the first paragraph of the let-
ter. I saw at once that attendance would be embarrassing and
concluded that I would not attend unless all other ambassadors
did. I suggested that Mr. Gordon ascertain the French atti-
tude, and continued debating in my own mind whether I would
refuse to attend even if all the other diplomats went.

August 21 Monday. I lunched with Dr. Hans Dieckhoff at
the Adlon Hotel on Unter den Linden. President Rufus von
Kleinsmid of the Umversity of Southern California was the
guest of honour. There were about twenty members of the gov-
ernment circle present at an elaborate luncheon with three
kinds of wine. I took only a sip or two.

After the luncheon some Foreign Office men gathered about
me to determine, if possible, my attitudes. The Minister of
Education, Bernhard Rust, who spoke no English, seemed most
concerned, I talked of German historians: Mommsen, Von
Ranke and the rest. Rust said the Jews had forced Mommsen

JUNE 8 , 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1033 39

to omit certain passages from his Roman History because it
reflected on the “chosen people/’ I listened. He said the pub-
lishers compelled him to do it. I listened. Aside from historical
discussion I said little that could be reported, but I did allow
my general agreement with the cultural Germany of 1900 to
be obvious. I bade the party farewell at 4 o’clock. As I walked
out of the door of the hotel, the chief butler followed me to
help me into my car. He was astonished, perhaps disgusted,
when he saw me walk off briskly towards the Embassy.

At 4.30 the Spanish Ambassador called (very pleasantly
unconventional because neither of us had been officially re-
ceived) to talk over possible attendance at the Nurnberg show.
I implied that I would not go and added that precedents in
American history were all against it, referring to Lord Sack-
ville’s and Jackson’s cases (the first under Cleveland in 1888,
the second under Madison in 1811). The Spanish Ambass^ador
spoke German about as well or as badly as I did. We went
over the matter thoroughly and agreed, though I did not say
positively what I would do, as it was my first meeting with
him

August 22, Tuesday, I asked for instructions from the State
Department and I received a non-committal reply insofar as
the American Government was concerned, but they added they
would support anything I decided to be the right thing to do.
I at once made up my mind not to go, even if all other am-
bassadors went.

At 10.45 Edgar Mowrer called to talk over his case, the
State Department having advised his withdrawal. At 11.15,
Dr. Dieckhoff of the Foreign Office came in to ask for Mow-
rer’s immediate departure. Dieckhoff talked about a number
of subjects before he came to the real one: the danger of
Mowrer’s being physically attacked, especially if he went to
Nurnberg to report the Party demonstration. The government
already had guards about Mowrer’s house and office. In view
of the intensity of feeling and the danger of another “atrocity,”
I agreed to advise Mowrer to go by September i. Dieckhoff
said he would give him all possible protection.

When Dieckhoff went out, Group Leader Karl Ernst of the

40 JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER 11, 1933

Berlin S,A. (Storm Troops) came in to apologize for violence
done to Dr. Mulvihill, a medical specialist here working on
lung problems, Mulvihill, standing on the curb of Unter den
Linden and not saluting when S.A. troops marched by, was
knocked down and taken away unconscious. Messersmith de-
manded immediate punishment of the offender, who was
promptly put into prison. The Secret Police Chief, Rolf Diels,
had ordered Ernst to apologize.

As the young officer clicked his boots together and gave the
Hitler gesture, I arose, returning the greeting as best I saw
fit and listened to his German confessions of regret and his
promise that such a thing would not happen again. When he
was done, I asked him to be seated and then read him a lecture
on the dangers of such behaviour on the part of his followers.
He protested to me that he was sincere and resolute in his
proijiise to put a stop to violence towards foreigners. He arose,
stood at attention, saluted, made a Prussian bow and went out.
I was not a little amused. At i o’clock, I explained to Messer-
smith that the amends were properly made. He said: ''The
incidents will go on.”

August S3. Wednesday. After a busy morning, I called on
Under-Secretary of State von Bulow in his office on the Wil-
helmstrasse. Mr. Gordon accompanied me, and being persona
non grata in the Foreign Office, he said to me: "I expect to be
left standing outside half an hour.” But Von Bulow came into
the reception-room in two minutes. We sat around a table and
talked agreeably for fifteen minutes about unemployment re-
lief and international relations. I made the move to go but
talked a moment about Von Bulow’s uncle who left a remark-
able autobiography, though I spoke only of Von Bulow’s Ger^
man Politics published in 1916, an excellent critique of German
foreign relations before 1914 as well as of German ineptitude
in foreign affairs.

At 4.30 the same day Von Bulow returned my call and he
remained nearly an hour. We agreed on most subjects dis-
cussed. I spoke of Ernst’s apology and he promised to do all
he could with the Police Department to stop further offences.
He said German foreign relations were very acute, and that

JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1033 4I

‘'the hostility of Jews in the United States did much
harm ”

I asked if there would be any reason given for aggression
on the French or Austrian border. He said. “Not a single
aggressive move will be made ; but we must have air-defence
and anti-tank guns regardless of the Versailles Treaty, if con-
tinued ojSensive armament goes on in France. Germany has
the right to arm if other nations violate the treaty and arm.
On this point we are all united in Germany, but you must not
think all this marching in the streets is simply war-like. It is
the needful discipline of our unemployed!’’ I made no com-
ment. We then talked of other less pressing themes, though he
did come back to the subject to say: “The Chancellor will
make a pacifist speech at Nurnberg.” I replied that I was glad,
but did not refer to my doubts or my decision not to attend
the meeting. We parted very agreeably.

August 25. Friday. Dr. Karl Wehner of the Berliner Tage-
blattf who recently published in his paper a very comprehen-
sive review of my Cotton Kingdom^ came to talk about possible
reviews of other books of mine. I gave him a copy of my
Woodrow Wilson^ not for review but for a study of my ideas
of economic and international problems during the Wilson era.
He said he would come again when he had finished the book.
I wonder.

At 12 o’clock George Sylvester Viereck came with a letter
from Colonel House. Viereck impressed me as unstable, a real
pro-Nazi, here to see officials of the government. We had him
to lunch and I still felt it a little unsafe to talk frankly with
him. His manner makes me uneasy. I think Colonel House
has been imposed upon. He should know better. Viereck said
he was going to Nurnberg and would return and then bring
the young Hohenzollern Prince Friedrich to see the family,
if we were willing.

August 26. Saturday I sent a reply to the German invitation
to Nurnberg. I declined it on the grounds of pressure of work,
though the main reason was my disapproval of a government

B 2

42 JUNE 83 1933 TO OCTOBER I I, I933

invitation to a Party convention. I was also sure the behaviour
of the dominant group would be embarrassing.

August 28 Monday, H. C. MacLean, chief of American
Commercial Attaches m Europe, with headquarters in Paris,
called. We conferred with our Commercial Attache here, Doug-
las Miller, who speaks German fluently and is married to a
German wife. My first acquaintance with his work came only
a day or two ago when his admirable survey of German con-
ditions under the Hitler regime came to my desk, exceedingly
well done.

More interesting for the moment was the visit of H. V.
Kaltenborn, European news analyst for the Columbia Broad-
casting System. His work has been to assess Hitler and the
Nazi^ movement and prepare informed radio addresses in the
United States about present-day Germany.

August 2g. Tuesday, Karl von Wiegand called again. He is
just back from a journey to Vienna, Geneva, Paris and London.
His story was amazing. Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss of
Vienna had given him a six-hour interview, driving through
the mountains of Austria, Dollfuss has defeated the planned
Hitler putsch over the Austrian border, which had been set for
September 6 . The abandonment of the scheme was due to the
growing Austrian dislike of the Nazis and to Mussolini’s inter-
vention on the side of Dollfuss Von Wiegand reported Doll-
fuss as saying: “There will not be a putsch after the great
Nurnberg Party Congress in September.” I was convinced, and
was also inclined to think the failure of France, England, the
United States and Spain to participate in the Nazi Party Day
has been influential in the same direction.

He then told me that France was completing her treaty with
Russia (Edouard Herriot was then on the way to Moscow),
according to which Russia would support any French move
against Germany. Also it would soon be shown that Germany
had bought a vast amount of airship materials in Russia and
that France had seized this material because the Treaty of
Versailles had been violated. France and England were in
accord and would show a solid front in the event of any warlike

JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER I I, 1033 43

attitude on the part of Germany. However, a boycott would be
tried first, then a blockade.

Finally Von Wiegand reported that the night before he had
cabled — rather long-distance telephoned — to the Hearst news
service in London the contents of President von Hmdenburg’s
will: (i) A Hohenzollern would be urged upon the German
people; (2) Hitler was to be Chancellor with limited powers;
and (3) there was to be a restoration of popular participation
in the government.

I asked him if it were not dangerous to transmit the con-
tents of a man’s will that way. He said: ‘1 am sure of the
facts ; my information comes from one of Von Hindenburg’s
intimate friends, and I think the world ought to know the
facts. Of course the Secret Police here know what I have done.
I have intimations that I am soon to be cited to appear before
Diels, Secret Police Chief.” I told him he should not allow
himself to be ordered out of the country. Mowrer is a lesson in
this. Von Wiegand impressed me as half ready to be made a
martyr. I was, however, a little astounded to hear his story.

In the afternoon Whiting Williams, Saturday Evening Post
writer, came to give me a strange tale of Russian woe, a ten-
thousand-word story, soon to appear in print, of starving mil-
lions of peasants. He asked for a letter to President Roosevelt
which I said I might give him, but I am not sure. I could
hardly believe 20,000,000 were starving in Soviet Russia!

August 30, Wednesday, I went with the Embassy staff, each
of us in dress suit, top hat and all that, to present my creden-
tials to President von Hindenburg. My three-page statement
was conventional except for the inclusion of ‘‘German people”
as the obj’ect of my mission, and also the statement of German
intellectual life as of great interest and importance to the people
of the United States. The President responded in vigorous
language and laid particular emphasis upon what I said about
the German people and culture. The President and I sat on
the “preferred sofa” while Von Neurath, Von Bulow and Hans
Otto Meissner, Foreign Office chiefs, the last-named being the
President’s secretary, sat about the table in front of the Presi-
dent and myself.

44 JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER I I, 1933

The conversation turned upon President Roosevelt and eco-
nomic problems in the United States and Germany. I said there
have been strong differences of opinion about the President in
Washington but that his decision had been against economic
nationalism, recently urged upon him. Von Hmdenburg as-
serted vigorously his doubts of economic nationalism as a solu-
tion for a distressed and unemployed people. He stressed the
subject of international relations so pointedly that I thought
he meant indirect criticism of the Nazi extremists.

After fifteen minutes of agreeable exchange of conversation
in which I was asked about my German university life and his-
tory teachers, I moved a little as a sort of gesture. I thought it
was time to go and in a minute I arose and went into an adjoin-
ing room where I introduced the members of the Embassy staff
to the President. That over, I retired to the entrance hall and
marched sedately out of the building with the uniformed Von
Bassowitz on my left, my staff trailing behind. When we drove
away, several companies of the Reichswehr stood at attention
on both sides of the street. It was all over and I was at last a
duly accepted representative of the United States in Berlin

At 5 o’clock I called upon the Papal Nuncio who lives in a
marvellous palace not a little unbecoming to the priestly garb
and ascetic look of its master. We spoke German fairly well
for fifteen minutes. He could not go to Nurnberg — the Catholic
Conference at Trier compelled his attendance. I asked if he
thought there were any Christians left in the world. He
shrugged his shoulders but said ‘^Yes.” I asked about the Papal-
Hitler concordat and he approved the idea. He finished the
conversation with enthusiastic support of absolute religious free-
dom and separation of church and state ! That from an orthodox
Catholic !

August 31. Thursday. We lunched with a delightful party of
German scholars. The conversation was in German and Eng-
lish and of a very high character. There were some Nazi offi-
cials present. I showed the Germans how President Roosevelt
has managed public opinion thus far and how his opponents
are brought into line without ruthless treatment. One of the
Nazis said : He is wise not to ask for his powers for too long

JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, I933 45

a period.” There was general indirect acknowledgment that
Hitler has undertaken too much and for too long a period. If
I had known at the beginning that there were several Nazi
leaders present, I might have given my part of the talk a
somewhat different direction.

September i. Friday. Henry Mann of the National City
Bank spoke of the conversation he and Mr. Aldrich had had
some ten days before with the Chancellor at his summer place.
The ideas advocated by Hitler were the same as those he had
advanced to Professor Coar. He is a fanatic on the Jewish prob-
lem. He has no conception of international relationships. He
considers himself a German Messiah. But despite Hitler’s atti-
tude these bankers feel they can work with him.

September 5. Tuesday. The stately Papal Nuncio called and
we talked agreeably in German, our only means of communi-
cation At 5 in the afternoon I made my second formal call, on
the French Ambassador, Andre Frangois-Poncet, in his beauti-
ful palace on Unter den Linden, by the Brandenburger Tor (a
monument to commemorate French defeat!). We talked Eng-
lish for a while but rather conventionally. I stayed just twelve
minutes by my watch.

September 6 . Wednesday. Von Prittwitz, a former German
Ambassador to Washington, called at 1 1 and talked rather cau-
tiously about the problems before the Hitler government. I
understood from Representative Robert Bacon of New York
that Von Prittwitz stood in some danger of imprisonment, but
he told me that the Reichskanzler had recently received him
and showed a conciliatory spirit. The former Ambassador will
now open a business office in Berlin with a view to using his
American contacts to advantage. He impressed me as a good
deal of a diplomat but in a somewhat precarious situation with
reference to his own government.

We went to lunch formally with Dr. Dieckhoff in Dahlem.
My wife and Martha were with me. The Reichsbank president,
Dr, Schacht, Mayor Sahm of Berlin — seven feet tall with a
wife six feet tall and a little broad, too, and other members of

46 JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1933

the government circle were present. After retiring from the
table, Schacht told a story of a conversation last May with
President Roosevelt, whom he professed to admire, in which
he asked why there was no ambassador on his way to Berlin.
The President replied that he was having a hard time finding
a man who knew German life, who sympathized with the
German people in their dilemma, and who could speak
German.

A little later Schacht expressed regret that I had not been
able to go to Nurnberg. I quickly replied that the invitation
had been to a purely Party gathering and that it was generally
regarded in the United States as highly improper for an am-
bassador or minister to attend. I cited Lord Sackville’s case in
1888 and other similar incidents in support of my decision. He
seemed not to have thought of that as others also had not,
according to their part in the conversation. It was an agreeable
party, the conversation mosdy in German. We ate duck and
sauerkraut.

' September 7. Thursday, I had been told by the etiquette
authorities of my staff that I must give a reception to all the
diplomatic corps soon after the formal acknowledgment, by the
President of Germany, of my status. They said there would be
some forty or fifty people. But before the day arrived and after
invitations had gone out I was informed that each diplomat
would bring members of his staff.

So today the show began at 5 o’clock. The Embassy rooms
had been prepared; flowers abounded everywhere; a great
punch bowl was filled with the accustomed liquors. Mr. Gor-
don and myself, with Count von Bassewitz, protocol official,
introduced the ambassadors and ministers as they came. Many
distinguished people came, including Von Neurath, Schacht
and the French Ambassador. There was a little talk, a little
commingling of the officials of various countries, and over two
hundred names in our guest book. It was not a bad affair, and
cost 700 marks

September 8 , Friday. The Spanish Ambassador, Luis Zulueta,
called and we had a half hour’s talk in German, He impressed

JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER II, I933 47

me as most reasonable and wise. He was formerly a professor
of philosophy in the University of Madrid — thus a little my
own kind of man.

September ii. Monday. I returned formal calls of the Irish
and Hungarian Ministers, the latter very poorly housed on
the third floor of an ancient apartment. But he was very agree-
able and intelligent, as most of them seem to be. He spoke of
having Hungary re-annexed to Austria and both economically
annexed to Germany. He was quite undiplomatic in placing his
cards all on. the table.

' " I "then returned the call of the Spanish Ambassador, ele-
gantly housed in a palace built and furnished during the hey-
day of German imperialism, far too elaborate for the present
modest and intellectual representative of modern Spain, if there
is such a thing as modern Spam. It was plain that we are far
more akin than a Spaniard and an American are supposed to be.

In the evening we all went to dine with Professor Erich
Marcks, under whom I studied for my German degree. There
was a delightful company: two young sons, officers in the
Reichswehr, a Herr Drexler of the Foreign Office and his wife,
a Dutch woman with a sense of humour and bushy hair, Mrs.
Marcks and other members of the family. Conversation was
historical, political and very lively as Marcks is gifted with a
high sense of humour The talk was half German, half English.

September 12. Tuesday At 12 o’clock Monsieur Frangois-
Poncet came, a half hour ahead of the appointed time, and
remained forty minutes. The conversation began in English. It
soon shifted to German which the Ambassador speaks admir-
ably, having been a student in Berlin before the World War.
It was clear from the beginning that he was excited He re-
peated a very disagreeable conversation he had had the day
before with Baron von Neurath. It was plain that they had
disagreed sharply and he wished me to know how tense are
the relations between the French and the Germans.

He said : '^They gave a play last Sunday before a large audi-
ence in which Germany was represented as a great area with
two dissevered sections begging to be returned. The German

48 JUNE 83 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1933

people were represented by a group of Brown Shirt men, be-
draggled prisoners, disarmed and helpless. French soldiers
armed to the teeth, Englishmen and Americans stood by ap-
provingly. The whole scene was designed to stir the deepest
hostility against France, as also against the rest of the world.
I made strong protest to the Foreign Minister who simply
shrugged his shoulders. He made a promise to stop such in-
sults. And it was plain to me that he had no power to effect
any change, even if he wished.”

Monsieur Frangois-Poncet, a handsome, imposing-looking
person, was much excited. He insisted that war is almost cer-
tain to come. In my opinion, economic conditions are better
than at any time since I have been here The Nazis have the
press and their chiefs under such discipline and control that I
feel there will be no outbreak for some time, perhaps a year.
As for international relations, the situation is too problematical
to estimate the future

I asked him if he had read Lloyd George’s translated article
in last Sunday’s Vossische Z^itung. He said he had not I then
repeated its main points, with its conclusion about the last war :
^Tf It were all to do over again, I should decide exactly as I
did then.” The Ambassador said ^‘Yes,” and continued: ‘'The
English are coming again to recognize the German menace to
European peace,” and he returned to his former warning that
unless America and England lend assistance again we are going
to have another great war. He added : “The Germans are play-
ing with fire now as in 1914, and I said as much to Von Neu-
rath yesterday.”

I then asked whether he had heard what Von Hindenburg’s
attitude is. He repeated exactly the story that Karl von Wie-
gand had given me a week or two before : the President’s will
provided for a Hohenzollern to come to the throne, for Hitler
to be 'Chancellor, and for some sort of national assembly
M. Frangois-Poncet added : “But it won’t be a Hohenzollern.
Nobody in that family is fit. The Crown Prince is idle and
dissolute and has no will of his own, and the sons are not old
or promising enough. Nor would Goebbels allow Von Hinden-
burg’s will to prevail He wishes to put the Duke of Hesse on
the throne and make himself the real master.” I thought the

JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER I I, 1033 49

people of Germany were inclined to give the Reichspresident
more attention, and that one of the Hohenzollerns is more
likely to be chosen than the Duke of Hesse, a violent Jew-
baiter.

September 14, Thursday, Count de Kherchove, Belgian Min-
ister, spent a half hour presenting his view of the dangers of
German rearmament. He said Belgium must rely always upon
Britain’s support, rather than that of France.

I went at 12.15 to talk things over with Baron von Neurath,
and remained until i o’clock. Von Neurath agreed that our
move towards Latin America, as indicated in the Montevideo
Conference, would be serious for Germany, if it meant aban-
donment of another economic conference to do what was
planned at the London Conference I illustrated the German
ineptitude in foreign economic affairs by repeating the story of
the North German Lloyd attempt early in August to prevent
Germans or other travellers from taking passage on any but
German ships. I showed him how fatal that order would have
been if Americans had applied a similar rule in New York,
taking 80 per cent of the traffic from German vessels. He
seemed surprised at the folly and frankly acknowledged that
German authorities are naive in such matters.

I spoke of the beatings of Americans on German streets
when they failed to give the Hitler salute during parades. I
cited the cases of Mulvihill, Brossard and the young son of
H. V. Kaltenborn, and said that no punishment of offenders
had been reported. Although Group Leader Ernst had made
public apology in the Mulvihill case, the authorities seemed to
pay no attention. I acknowledged that Americans were negli-
gent but said that was their privilege, and that they never or
rarely saluted their own flag when they met a column of sol-
diers. It simply is not their habit. He replied that he appre-
ciated the gravity of the matter, especially if the State Depart-
ment contemplated an announcement that it was unsafe for
Americans to visit Germany. I explained the newspaper atti-
tude at home, said that I had kept two or three cases out of the
press reports and otherwise tried to prevent unfriendly demon-
strations. He assured me he had recently gone over the matter

50 JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1933

with Goering, President of Prussia and Police Chief, and also
with the Chancellor, both agreeing that stricter enforcement of
the law would be made thereafter. He referred to a notice in
the papers two days before which referred to the Communist
elements in the S.A (storm troops) as the unruly ones. He
thought it was all over; I hoped so.

Then we talked at length about the Jewish outrages. Here
was a problem which seemed to give him much more trouble.
Hitler means to put all Jews out of responsible positions in
Germany, even to expel them from the country. Von Neurath
said he sat on the platform a few days before in the Baden-
Baden sport field and no sort of affronts were given to three
prominent Jews on the same platform. I reviewed events in the
United States since July 5 and showed how the boycott in
America and England was operating and how newspapers were
exciting liberal opinion everywhere I intimated that many lib-
eral people of eminence had come to me to report their com-
plaints. But I did not need to repeat some stories of brutalities
and murders that had come to me The case was too clear.

He asked whether we did not have a Jewish problem in the
United States. I acknowledged that some people thought so,
and again repeated my dislike of German brutality methods.
I continued . You cannot expect world opinion of your conduct
to moderate so long as eminent leaders like Hitler and Goeb-
bels announce from platforms, as in Nurnberg, that all Jews
must be wiped oflF the earth. He was embarrassed as on one or
two previous occasions. He did not promise any reform, much
as he seemed to lament the facts.

As I arose to go, I said: Is there to be war? He replied:
‘‘No, absolutely no.” I said : You must realize that Germany
would be ruined by another war. He agreed and said : “I am
leaving Wednesday for Geneva where I shall support Ameri-
can demands for decreasing armaments and hope Norman
Davis may succeed.” I left, a little concerned that I had been
so frank and critical The Minister seemed to be in good humour
nevertheless.

September 75. Friday, One of the amusing days! The Prus-
sian authorities had invited the diplomatic corps to attend the

JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER I I, 1033 5I

formal opening of the new Council of State, substitute for the
former German Upper House. As the thing was purely official,

I decided to go. On the way, vast masses of Brown Shirt sol-
diers lined the streets on both sides from the Victoriastrasse
to the university, about a mile — perhaps 100,000 uniformed
men.

Entering the Brandenburger Tor, the Prussian and Hitler
flags stood on the right and the soldiers were at attention. I
gave a half-humorous, if not sarcastic, salute, which was taken
by newspaper men to mean a surrender to Party authorities.
It was incorrect to do so since my top hat was off and no salute
at home would be expected. But Nazi people do not understand
this. It is embarrassing not to wave to cheering people, but
any wave can be interpreted as a Hitler salute. However, I
waved, thus becoming to some newspeople a Nazi partisan. I
decided my words could speak for themselves.

When I found my place it was on the right of the speakers’ .
stand. The Papal Nuncio sat next to me. It was a beautiful hall.
Slowly the officials of the new Nazi state filed in to their seats
in the middle of the room. Hermann Goering, a fat ridiculous-
looking man according to my taste, came towards his centrally
located chair with a score of men behind him. He stopped and
gave the Hitler salute, a click of shoe-heels, a raise of the right
hand and a sharp Prussian bow. The diplomatic corps, follow-
ing the suggestion of the Nuncio, bowed in the usual English-
American easy style.

The Prussian Minister, Goering, in Hitler uniform, began
a long harangue which, not being in front of him, I could un-
derstand only in broken snatches here and there It was a pas-
sionate oration on the meaning of the new state, the Third
Reich, in which three or four times I discerned contemptuous
remarks about the discarded parliamentary system. It is curi-
ous : next week they are trying three or four men in Leipzig
on a charge of treason for burning the old Reichstag building,
and yet this man, next in authority to Hitler himself, denounces
parliamentananism as a betrayal of Germanism.

The meeting adjourned about 12.30 and the diplomatic corps
took its place on the terrace in front of the university to witness
the marching of thousands of Prussian police. Brown Shirts and

52 JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, I933

Stahlhelm troops. Some of them indulged in the absurd parade
step in which the soldiers march without bending the knee —
the goose step — perfectly executed. When a division of cavalry
followed, I nudged and whispered to the Nuncio: You notice
the horses do not keep step and they walk naturally. What’s
the reason they are not so obedient? The Papal dignitary seemed
not to catch the point, or he hesitated to show that he did.
I admired the horses.

September j 6 . Saturday, Von Wiegand called, after a five-
day visit to England, and reported what he considered semi-
war-like plans of the British. He said: “The British Cabinet
have made a formal study of a plan to blockade Germany in
the event of an outbreak of war. The idea is for France, Eng-
land, Poland, Russia, Czechoslovakia and Austria to unite to
bar all exit and entrance of military or other goods to Germany.
^Belgium would also co-operate. The plan has been submitted
to the Cabinet, but tabled for the present.”

September i 8 Sunday. A young Reimer Koch-Weser, the
son of a former Prussian Minister of Justice, who has studied
in New England and has a position in a New York law firm,
came to beg me to use what influence I could to procure restora-
tion of his father to his former rights as a practising lawyer in
Berlin. The father’s grandfather was a Jew. Hence the father
is denied a means of livelihood in Germany. He left me two
books to prove his father’s claim to some attention as a con-
servative-liberal writer, I repeated what I had said a hundred
times since July 14: I have no authority at all to approach any
German official about such a matter. He hoped I could find
occasion, unofficially, to mention the subject and bring a little
pressure to bear. I saw no immediate prospect, harsh as the
ruling against the family seemed.

September 21. Thursday. Young Herbert von Bismarck called
at 12 o’clock. He seemed favourable in appearance, about
twenty-eight years old as I judged. I said : You live under the
great disadvantage of being the grandson of the greatest states-
man Germany has ever had. The handsome young man flushed

JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1933 53

a little and said: ‘‘Yes, that’s so.” I then asked him Bismarck’s
attitude in 1871 about the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, sug-
gesting that my interpretation of the correspondence of his
grandfather was to the effect that the great blunder would not
have been made if the then Prime Minister had had his way.
He agreed at once that Bismarck had opposed Kaiser William I
and von Moltke and proposed to give the long-disputed area
to Switzerland. We then talked of the folly of victors in most
wars. After a bit of conversation about Germany in which he
acknowledged friendly relations to the Nazi regime, we parted
company, my secretary making the polite blunder of coming
in too soon.

September 22, Friday At 5 o’clock, Minister Francis White,
long-time Under-Secretary of State with Latin America for his
realm, came in tp talk about the situation in Germany. He had
been at Prague a month where he had been putting in order,
at much expense to the government, the famous palace (once
belonging to Charles R. Crane) of fourteen rooms, for him-
self, his wife and one child. He made the impression of a loyal,
industrious official, not well-informed about Europe in any way.

Mr. White and his wife, Prince Friedrich Hohenzollern, son
of the Crown Prince, now living at Potsdam, and Ernst Hanf-
staengl, a curious, well-to-do Hitler enthusiast since 1921, came
to dinner. It was an interesting evening. The prince showed
himself very modest, gentle-mannered and appreciative. Hanf-
staengl was a boisterous Harvard graduate of young Theodore
Roosevelt’s day. When “Teddy Jr.” was mentioned, he flew
into a rage. After dinner, he played on the piano. The party
broke up at 10.30, the proper hour according to my taste, ^ '

September 25, Monday. At 8 o’clock. Dr. Schacht, the Reichs-
bank president, came to dine with Senator McAdoo, two very
clever, stubborn-willed men. The latter is seventy years old
and hardly looks to be fifty-five ; the former is around fifty, I
believe, but looks older. Conversation was the keenest and most
interesting I have ever heard on financial subjects. The two
men went away together. This was one of the real dinners of
our stay here thus far.

54 JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER I I, I933

September 57 Wednesday, Lord Astor of the New York-
London family, called this morning and reported that Boston
leaders of the Mother Church (Christian Science) had called
him to come to Germany to protest against dissolving Christian
Science organizations in south Germany, one of the societies
having been ruthlessly treated in Weimar. I had already learned
of the matter and had a cable from the State Department ask-
ing for information. I told Lord Astor that I thought the mat-
ter had been corrected by the German authorities, thinking of
Von Neurath’s promises of September 14, and that he might
perhaps rest easy. It is the same troublesome story : inexperi-
enced Nazi local authorities acting hastily, and evil results with
difficulty corrected.

I then suggested to Lord Astor that he remain in Berlin,
study the general situation and try to see Chancellor Hitler in
the hope of influencing him to support Von Neurath m Geneva
as against Goebbels who was publicizing Germany as more bel-
ligerent and reckless He agreed and I arranged with Louis P.
Lochner, the Associated Press correspondent, to get an inter-
view with Hitler. Astor was a much more interesting and alert
person than I had expected from the impressions I received of
him when he was in Chicago ten years ago and I talked with
him at Hull House.

September sg, Friday, At lunch, tall, dark Lord Astor sat
down with Von Bulow, one of the German Secretaries of State.
We had an interesting interchange of views on recovery prob-
lems but no real talk about the critical matter of world peace
which his Lordship came here to promote if possible, after his
Christian Science fellows are relieved.

When the other guests had gone, Lord Astor sat down in the
library and said : '1 am to see Hitler at 6. Is there anything
you think I might discuss with him to advantage^’’ I replied:
If you can impress upon him the importance of improving
his British and American relationships, and the need for
Germany of an agreement as to disarmament at Geneva, you
will only be re-emphasizing what I have been urging upon
officials at the Foreign Office. After a few minutes he went
away, not very hopeful.

JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER if, I933 55

At 6.30 I went with Counsellor Gordon, who was most
anxious to go, to see Von Bulow. Gordon doesn’t get on with
Von Bulow and Von Bulow has not shown any cordial feeling
for Gordon when we have been together before. I suggested
because of this that the First Secretary of the Embassy, Joseph
Flack, should also go. He had prepared the data we were to
use in the discussion of the so-called ‘‘quota system” now being
applied all over Europe against the United States because of
debts and high tariffs.

So we took seats by a table in the Foreign Office exactly on
time. Von Bulow and an assistant sat opposite us. We protested
against a quota for Yugoslavia on imports of prunes at low
tariff rates and the failure to grant the same privilege to Amer-
ican prune-growers. The volume of trade involved was much
larger than I had any idea of Von Bulow said the arrangement
was already fixed for eight months and it could not be modified.
Yugoslavia allowed similar concessions to German imports.
There was nearly an hour of earnest talk but no compromise,
except Von Bulow’s remark towards the end: “The time for us
all to agree on easier trade relations was last summer in Lon-
don,” with which I concurred. We came away at 7.30, just as
wise or not wise as to German policy as before. But the State
Department request had been met in full.

October 4, Wednesday. Charles R. Crane came to talk before-
hand about his interview with Adolf Hitler. I asked him to
stress, if the opportunity arose, two factors which influence
Germans and foreigners against the present regime, (i) The
mass of educated and professional Germans who resent the
arbitrary and violent behaviour of many of Hitler’s under-officers
and some of his colleagues (Goebbels and Goering) require
more consideration. There is a silent resistance to arbitrary
measures like the recent dismissal of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,
grandson of the great musician and eminent professor of inter-
national relations at Hamburg. (2) The ruthlessness with which
Jews are treated should be abandoned. Goebbels’ talks, though
I said not to name him, cause great injury all over the world.

At 5 o’clock, Mr. Crane was again at the house, tea-drinking.
He has been some months at Carlsbad where he thinks one’s

56 JUNE 8, 1933 TO OCTOBER II, I933

health is better restored than anywhere else. He talked of his
coming interview with the Pope about a sort of pact with the
Islam world whereby the followers of Mohammed may be
protected against the Jews who are taking Palestine. He makes
the impression of being a little in his dotage. He is seventy-five
years old. Long years of strange experiences in American poli-
tics, in Russia where he did much to bring on the Kerensky
revolution which gave way to Communism and drove Crane
out of the country, and in China as Wilson’s Minister there,
have upset his equilibrium somewhat.

October j. Thursday. Mr. Crane came tea-drinking again
today. He was enthusiastic about his Hitler interview. In his
opinion, the Chancellor was not learned like Mr. Houston of
the Wilson Cabinet, who was so often wrong because of lack of
imagination. Crane found Hitler simple, enthusiastic, bent on
stirring the German people to passionate self-confidence and
wanting in knowledge of foreign problems. This is the same
story I have heard again and again.

Mr. Crane was so friendly that he offered to furnish me a
trustworthy private secretary. Of course I could not accept ; it
is contrary to the rules of the Department. Much as I need
such a person, I have no means of engaging one myself, nor
of accepting one paid by another. The reason is that such ar-
rangements would surely tend to demoralize the service. So
many wealthy men would endeavour to serve their own interests
by lending aid to public officials, especially in the Foreign
Service. Crane was disappointed.

At 8.30 we went to the Esplanade Hotel where Frederick
Wirth, President of the American Club in Berlin, met us. We
were most ceremoniously escorted into a waiting-room. Mr.
Gordon insisted that I must precede my wife, which I was not
inclined to do, and all others as we marched with a party of
Embassy folk to the beautiful dining-room where some 150
people were ready to participate in a grand dinner, costing
8 marks a plate, wine extra. It was a fine demonstration in full
evening dress of the interest of the American colony here in
the “new Ambassador.”

In due course, Mr. Wirth introduced me and I spoke on the

JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER I I, 1033 57

Dilemma in the United States which seemed to hold the audi-
ence’s attention closely. At the end, a Dr. Fuehr of the German
Foreign Office spoke on behalf of the government and dwelt
on the fact of my having taken my doctorate in Leipzig and
published my dissertation in German. There was no hint of my
failure to fall in with the Nurnberg Party show of September,
though I had heard there was a good deal of criticism. When
the speaking was over we had half an hour of personal talk and
hand-shaking and then we came home. Both the Americans
and the Germans present were most cordial in every way.

October ii. Wednesday. The Dutch Minister called. He had
been acquainted with the Kaiser when still on the German
throne and he indicated a sympathetic feeling for the old
regime. I did not respond to this in any way. The subject of
atrocities came up and I told him of the shameful case of a
Woolworth store man in Dusseldorf being attacked on the
streets there last Sunday in a most disgraceful way. The last
such case occurred on September i . After ample time and prom-
ises over the telephone by the police authorities, I had gone to
Von Neurath, Foreign Minister, and had an hour or nearly
that with him He regretted every one of the eight or ten cases
that were listed to him and promised everything one could ask,
but said, ^‘The S.A. men are so uncontrollable that I am afraid
we cannot stop them,” repeating, “I will do all possible.” On
Thursday, October 5, 1 had sent a request to the Foreign Office
urging a report on what officials had done. No reply came,
which I think means that the police have taken no measures
against the guilty men

I gave the friendly Dutch Minister an idea of my difficulty.
He said: “I have had some trouble myself since last spring,
and a recent case compels me to see Von Neurath tomorrow.
I expect nothing. The Foreign Office has no authority and Hit-
ler gives no orders to the Nazis in such matters, not knowing
what such behaviour means to his own cause.” It has been my
experience, too, that Von Neurath has been strangely evasive
on this and even more important international discussions.

I told him the Spanish Ambassador had sent word that he
was in the same plight. He wanted to know what I was con-

58 JUNE 85 1933 TO OCTOBER II, 1033

templating. I said : We may advise the government in Wash-
ington to announce to the world that Americans are not safe
in Germany and that travellers had best not go there. He said
he was considering the same action, that Dutchmen would
never give the Hitler greeting — the main cause of attacks — and
that he would not give it either.

The Minister is very angry but says the present regime is
here to stay. He said, ‘‘Even the death of the Old Man, Hin-
denburg, would bring no real change.’’ He then added: “The
European world is half crazy or worse. We quarrel and wrangle
and perhaps go to war. That will finish us, and Japan, after
annexing China, will sail into the Baltic It is terrible to con-
template the folly of the free peoples of the United States,
England and Holland.”

II

October 12, to March

October 12, Thursday. I went today to the Adlon Hotel to
lunch with the American Chamber of Commerce where it had
been announced two weeks ago that I was to speak. I had my
paper, eleven pages, in hand. Mr. Gordon, the Counsellor, had
read it carefully and approved of every sentence. Among the
guests were Dr. Schacht, Dr. Keppler from the Economics
Ministry, Dr. Fuehr and Dr. Davidson, both of the Foreign
Office, two representatives of Dr. Goebbels, and many Ameri-
can and English correspondents. There were about 200 people
present ; the newspapers said 300. I felt very keenly the tension
of the situation.

I was introduced with rather fulsome praise as an historian
and diplomat. I began to read the address after disallowing
some of the praise. As I started to read the audience was at
once tense. My points were that half-educated statesmen of our
day misunderstood the Caesar regime; that England, France
and the United States had all tried economic nationalism and
failed; and finally that the world is confronted with alterna-
tives of economic co-operation or chaos — ^war and its aftermath.
There was extraordinary applause considering the implied criti-
cism of statecraft here, in Italy, France and England. Dr.
Schacht said he had never known there was so much proof of
his contentions today. Dr. Davidson said: ‘‘You are another
Philipp Melancthon, Mentor Germaniae.*’ I was not taken in
by irony. The two Goebbels men said to the New York Times
representative that they were going to print the whole
speech.

Though I did not know it then, they were forbidden to do
so that afternoon. The Berliner Tageblatt^ the Boersen JZ^itung
and the Vossische ^eitung all carried good excerpts next day,
I think against the suggestion, not the command, of the Propa-
ganda Ministry.

6o

OCTOBER 123 1933 MARCH 4 , I934

October 13. Friday. I was due to protest today to Von Neu-
rath over the failure to punish those Nazis who had assaulted
Americans and the ignoring of my request, ten days before, for
information on this. My engagement was postponed twice dur-
ing the day, but in the evening I was finally received.

Von Neurath apologized for the delays and listened patiently
to my case and the protest from Washington. He said General
Goering had promised him a report on the punishment of all
offenders, but had not kept his promise.

We then talked of dangers to Germany and of the growing
hostility abroad. He repeated as usual how fully he agreed with
me, but I’m afraid the lesson of economic nationalism has not
been learned by him or, more important, by Hitler himself.
If they really believe a country can be economically independent
and discard international codes of behaviour, as I suspect they
do, real trouble will come. I came away fairly, not completely,
satisfied, having a lingering suspicion that Hitler had compelled
Von Neurath to postpone the interview as a sort of rebuke for
my speech of yesterday.

October 14. Saturday. We gave a dinner party to military
and naval attaches. At 9.30 a special messenger brought the
long-awaited formal report — of one lone man in a concentration
camp for striking Mr. Mulvihill on August 12 or 13. The Dus-
seldorf offenders were on the way to trial in Berlin, as if the
regular authorities on the Rhine were not equal to the task !

But before this episode reached its lame conclusion, Hitler
spoke over the radio to Germany, the rest of Europe and the
United States, announcing the German withdrawal from the
League and from the Disarmament Conference and proclaim-
ing a Reich election for November 14. The speech was moderate
for him. He demanded equal rights with other nations as to
armaments, defended his “revolution” as simply an anti-Com-
munist move, and assured the world of peaceful intentions. We
listened attentively. It was not the address of a thinker, but of
an emotionalist claiming that Germany had in no way been
responsible for the World War and that she was the victim of
wicked enemies.

After our company had gone, I went to bed a little troubled,

OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934 6l

the more so as Norman Davis, the President's roving ambassa-
dor to Europe, called on the long distance from Geneva to ask
for what information I could give. As I knew my telephone
wire was tapped by the German Propaganda Ministry, I spoke
only in general terms and promised to call him in a few days
if any real information came to me. The Germans have made
another huge blunder for want of statesmen.

October /j. Sunday. This was a day of tense feeling though
no new information has come to me. A young member of the
old German nobility came to lunch. He revealed a touch of
German hostility in his conversation, mainly in his defence of
Japanese aggression against China. He is deeply patriotic but,
like so many educated Germans, does not know what real
patriotism is. It is evident some dislike of me is arising here
now in official circles. I believe it is simply Nazi opposition. My
refusal to go to Nurnberg was the beginning. But as the English,
French and Spanish Ambassadors declined, I cannot be singled
out. The pressure for ceasing street beatings and fair commer-
cial treatment and now my speech of October 12 begin to look
critical to them.

We went to a movie this afternoon. Hitler was shown as
making a brief speech in Leipzig. There was no applause. Later,
Hitler was shown marching with a division of troops ; there was
very moderate applause. Then the unpopular Crown Prince was
put on the screen ; he drew quite as much applause as the Chan-
cellor. Hitler is surely not so powerful with the people as Mus-
solini, the Italian despot, has been.

October ly. Tuesday, I went today at 12 o’clock sharp to see
Chancellor Hitler in the palace where Bismarck once lived and
worked. I went up broad stairways guarded at every turn by
Nazi soldiers with hands raised in the Caesar style, making the
usual bows as I made various turns along the route. In the
waiting-room I met a young Mr. Hans Thomsen with whom
I talked five minutes about persons I knew in Germany. Then
Von Neurath opened the door to the Chancellor’s office, a great
room some fifty feet square with tables and chairs placed all
around for group conferences. The decorations on the ceiling

62 OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4 , I 934

and walls were beautiful but not so elaborate as in the great
ballroom adjoining. Adolf Hitler appeared in simple work-a-
'^day suit, neat and erect. He looks somewhat better than the
' pictures that appear in the papers.

We rehearsed two subjects, the assaults upon Americans and
the discriminations against American creditors. Everything I
asked was agreed to and the Chancellor assured me personally
that he would see that any future attack was punished to the
limit and that publicity would be given to decrees warning
everyone that foreigners were not to be expected to give the
Hitler salute.

On financial discriminations. Von Neurath made the reply :
‘*We have a falling export market and hence must make deals
with any nation that will take our goods. That’s the reason for
our paying Swiss creditors full interest on their bonds and
Americans only half the guaranteed rate of interest.” These
were not his exact words. We were talking German.

I could not fail to recognize the dilemma, for failure to ex-
port increasing amounts of goods would mean a default pure
and simple, far more serious than partial payment. One benefit
the Germans do not mention is the fact that German bonds fall
on the New York market to one-third or one-fourth their face
value, and German cities ^nd companies thus buy back their
bonds at low prices, saving sixty to seventy-five cents out of
every dollar which they borrowed in 1926-28. German finan-
ciers are not unequal to their New York fellows who made
enormous profits at the expense of American buyers of German
securities.

But the conversation turned quickly to the all-pervasive ques-
tion of the German thunderbolt of last Saturday. The Chan-
cellor was clearly excited. I asked him why he had withdrawn
from the League. He ranted about the Treaty of Versailles, the
failure of the powers to keep their promises about disarmament
and the indignity of keeping Germany in a defenceless status.
I replied: There is evident injustice in the French attitude;
but defeat in war is always followed by injustice. Witness the
terrible treatment of our southern states after the Civil War.
He remained silent on this score.

After an exchange of niceties, I asked the Chancellor whether

OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4, 1034 63

an incident on the Polish, Austrian or French border which
drew an enemy into the Reich would be allowed to be a casus
belli. Of course he said, "‘No, no.’’ I then said in case such a
thing were to occur in the Ruhr valley would you hold off and
call a conference of the European powers? He said: “That
would be my purpose, but we might not be able to restrain the
German people.” (I saw that he meant the violent Nazis whom
he has trained to violence.) I continued: If you would wait
and call a conference, Germany would regain her popularity
outside. A few more remarks and we parted, after a forty-five
minute interview. Many other subjects were touched upon. My
final impression was of his belligerence and self-confidence.

October i 8 , Wednesday, Bank Director Solmssen of the great
Disconto Gesellschaft spent a half hour with me. He reviewed
the Nazi uprising of last spring with approval. It was neces-
sary, he indicated. He thought the abolition of parties had been
warranted, and also that Jewish repressions were justified, in
a measure. Then he said : “But these repressions have gone too
far. Some Jews ought not to be dismissed ; Professor Mendels-
sohn-Bartholdy of Hamburg, for example ; and the universities
should be left free and also the schools and the press.” I felt
he was saying this for my benefit.

He concluded, “I heard your address before the American
Chamber of Commerce and have come here specially to thank
you in the name of liberal Germany which is overwhelmingly
grateful. You have said what we can or dare not say. It is
a great help to us. We wish you to continue to speak on occa-
sion.” He seemed to be very sincere, and also a very able,
though a self-contradictory business man, more liberal than
some American business men have been in my day.

October 20, Friday. To make sure of Hitler’s attitude about
the possibility of war, I saw Von Neurath this morning and he
repeated what was said on October 17. When the last of the
reports were m the pouch and another cable was off in the
afternoon I went home with a headache and the threat of a
cold.

I dressed for a dinner at the Herren Klub on Hermann

64 OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4 , I 934

Gonngstrasse. I ate only a boiled egg and rolls. Minister Cur-
tins, of the Bruening regime, greeted me in a half hour’s speech
at 9 30. He came pretty close to the Nazi attitude about war.
I responded for fifteen minutes, without notes, giving a brief
story of the incidents of my life in Germany as a student and
of the accidental appointment to my present dangerous posi-
tion, and closed with a brief statement that wars are no longer
rational solutions of any problem. Man’s inventive genius has
made war utterly destructive and a resort to war is but a reversion
to medievalism, a defeat of all nations. The Herren, many
nobles and Stahlhelms present, seemed to accept this philosophi-
cal criticism. At least they couldn’t politely berate me. Home
at II.

October 25. Wednesday, I received this morning a letter
from Senator Robert J. Bulkley, now in England, quoting a
friend in Holland who had just had dinner with Fritz Thyssen,
the great steel and munitions manufacturer in the Ruhr valley.
Thyssen said: ^^We compelled the German Government to
withdraw from the League.” Bulkley was absolutely certain of
the reliability of his informant,

October 26, Thursday. An eminent German of a former re-
gime came to let me know he is departing for New York to
lecture in the New School for Social Research instead of re-
maining here subject to possible ill treatment by the Nazi
leaders. He is a most promising and clear-thinking man, who
said: ‘‘You Americans must teach us Germans how to govern
ourselves, I go away for a year with the understanding I can
return next spring, or remain another year if I wish. I am
announcing that I return next spring.”

He had come to me three weeks ago and said he thought he
would not accept the offer of my friend, Dr. Alvin Johnson,
president of the New School. It then looked like a surrender
to him ; now he thinks it best to go and return later if things
improve. He thinks Hitler is moderating and perhaps the Ger-
man situation will improve. I fear German authorities will re-
gard the New School as simply a Jewish propaganda institu-
tion and so not welcome his return next year.

OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4, 1034 65

October 2y. Friday. Two German-Americans with prominent
business connections, one of them an official of the North Ger-
man Lloyd steamship company, came to me to know what can
be done here or elsewhere to assuage the rising anti-German
feeling in the United States. They reported that it was posi-
tively embarrassing to be known as a German in New York,
partly due to Jewish resentment there and partly due to recent
Nazi propaganda. They had joined the Nazi Party to put down
Communism and now Nazis were as unpopular as Communists
there. Yesterday’s Paris papers report Representative Dick-
stein’s investigation into Nazi activities is to be carried on by
official committee action on November 14. From appearances
the propaganda office here has been engaged in the most dan-
gerous performances imaginable.

These gentlemen had consulted officials in the Foreign Office
and they said the officials had been nonplussed and suggested
a visit with me They went away depressed — nor is the outlook
promising. French politicians have for ten years violated the
spirit of the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty. The
German Social-Democratic movement was ruined by French
policy. Now, after the German Nazi uprising m protest, the
Germans are trying to govern themselves by autocratic meth-
ods, alienating the world by their indiscretions and forcing
unanimous world dislike. Wrong and right are so mixed and
confused everywhere.

October 28. Saturday. At 5.30 Sir Eric Phipps and his lady
came to tea and remained an hour. The conversation was better
than his reputation in Berlin had led us to expect. They were
really dehghtful and quite convinced of the mistaken policy
which has permitted the Germans to withdraw from the League.
He told me a correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph
had been in prison two days in Munich for telling his newspaper
that S.A. troops had recently marched with arms. His consul
was not allowed to see him for two days. He is charged with
treason. This is another oportunity for American excitement.

October 2g. Sunday. Walking along the Tiergartenstrasse at
12 o’clock I saw a Brown Shirt procession coming. I walked

G

66 OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934

into the park to avoid embarrassment. The procession stopped
before the Turkish Embassy and stood at attention for a time.
Then they sang songs in honour of the tenth anniversary of the
founding of the present Turkish state. A vast crowd of people
gathered along the street and gave the Hitler greeting. It was
but a warning of what was to come that evening when we were
expected there at a Bierabend at 9.30. I went my way through
the park to the Esplanade Hotel.

At 10 we drove to the door of the Turkish Ambassador. The
whole place was infested with Brown Shirts. Salutes were given
at every possible turn. The halls were crowded. A table thirty
feet long was loaded with cold meats, vegetables and bread.
The people ate ravenously as though they had not had any-
thing all day, then drank beer. I saw Von Papen, of unenviable
American record, but I avoided a meeting. We remained only
a few minutes.

October 31, Tuesday. In bed with a light cold. Dr. Charles
S. MacFarland, former representative of the Federal Council
of Churches of Christ in America who has been travelling about
the country a week or two, a former pro-German and well ac-
quainted here, pressed for an interview. He came at 6.30. He
had had nearly an hour with Hitler and reported to him that
4,000 Protestant preachers had refused to accept the Hitler
church creed, that 2,700 were making formal protest after the
election, that one of the leading theological schools refused the
new creed and that the Catholics were likewise in a similar re-
volt and the Pope was considering a remedy. MacFarland said
Hitler declared he had not known of the 4,000 recalcitrants
and he wished MacFarland would say to the leaders that he
wished to see them. Then MacFarland argued that Protestants
in the United States would make ioud protest if the churches
here were denied absolute freedom of conscience. Hitler seemed
to sense his dangers in religious matters and saw the likelihood
of another incendiary issue.

At 8.15 we departed, full-dress, for a long-appointed dinner
with the French Ambassador and his wife. There was a great
room for the accommodation of men^s and women’s wraps, with
two servants, in livery, to receive them — expecting tips. Up the

OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934 67

magnificent stairway there were pages dressed in the gay liveries
of Louis XIV’s time. At the entrance to the reception hall,
there were two other servants to hand out cards indicating din-
ner companions. In the reception room there was a marvellous
rug with a huge letter N in the middle to remind one, especially
Germans, of the conquests of Napoleon. Dr. Hjalmar Schacht
and Count von Bassewitz were compelled to walk over or
around the famous initial. No remarks were made, but they
noticed the letter.

The walls were covered with beautiful Gobelin tapestries.
The chairs were of Louis XIV style. When the party of thirty
went into the dining-room, Madame Frangois-Poncet walking
on my right, I noticed Gobelins on the walls, also portraits of
French generals of the Louis XIV period, a peculiarly good
painting of young Louis XV and a lavish table with decorations
in the best of form and taste. There were eight or ten servants,
in liveries as pages, all standing at attention. It surpassed the
Belgian’s dining-hall outfit.

We ate for an hour. Nothing worth while was said, unless
the German conversation on my part with Frau Dr. Schacht
was worth while. After we were through, all marched correctly
to the reception room where everyone stood gossiping in little
groups until 1 1 .45 when the musicians came to open a concert.
Although I had said nothing about getting out of bed to attend
the dinner, I now felt so uncomfortable that I had to beg to
be excused. It was a little embarrassing and I felt our hosts
might feel a little affronted. There was nothing else to do, so
we went out as the great party moved into the music hall.
Such was the show of democratic France to autocratic
Germany.

November 5. Sunday John White, son of the famous Henry
White, Republican member of Wilson’s mission to the Paris
Conference, 1918-19, and Orme Wilson, a relative of Pierre-
pont Moffat, State Department official, arrived to take up their
work. The one will be Counsellor of the Embassy here, the other
Second Secretary. Both seemed to be good men — ^White a little
too English in bearing and with a distinct Harvard-Oxford
accent.

68 OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934

Movemher i 6 , Thursday. We sat down to dinner tonight
with Hjalmar Schacht, the Swiss Minister and the famous
nitrate manufacturer, August Diehn, whom I had met at lunch-
eon a few days before The conversation was not very good
though we had to leave too early to get a good test of it. Dr.
Schacht said m a rather conspicuous way that the addresses I
had been delivering in Germany were worth a great deal to the
country. I could not be sure of his meaning unless it was to say
indirectly that such discussions as I engaged in aided his side
of the Cabinet situation. He swears openly by Hitler but con-
vinces me that he believes m a liberal, even free trade, policy,
which is anathema to the Reichskanzler, if judged by his
speeches and writings Diehn talked only a little but I know
his attitude is that of a great trust chief, counting always on
government aid yet refusing to pay taxes commensurate with
he advantages enjoyed.

November i 8 Saturday. Dr. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, great
international lawyer and professor at Hamburg University, re-
cently dismissed because his grandfather was a Jew, although
he was himself baptized as a Christian, came to see me this
morning. He told me of his visit last summer to the World’s
Fair and the University of Chicago where he lectured, as I
knew from other sources, with great success He is to leave his
position January i, 1934. Since he is so well known in the
United States and England, I could not see how the Hitler
Government could afford to dismiss him. He made the impres-
sion of a very competent and dignified man. When he left, I
dictated a letter to the Carnegie Institution in New York ask-
ing for an appropriation of the amount of his salary for two
years, in the hope that the German Minister of Education,
Bernhard Rust, would find a way to reinstate him.

November ig Sunday. Two months ago I agreed to lecture
before the German-Amencan Church Forum on Martin Luther.
I did not then know that the Government had set aside a
Luther Day in November when high officials were to speak on
the great reformer. I indicated the 19th as the most convenient
date for me. When the government decided in October, about

OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4 , 1034 69

the i^th, to run a campaign for approval of German with-
drawal from the League of Nations, they chose November igth,
the Sunday after the election, as Luther Day. This gave my
appearance a somewhat embarrassing aspect, as it seemed semi-
official. There was nothing to be done.

I appeared at the church in due time. The house was crowded
to the last seat, some standing. My address had been carefully
prepared and was in the hands of both German and American
press people. A Nazi leader introduced me and said Hitler was
another Luther. The audience did not applaud this strange
remark. Although two-thirds of the audience were German, at-
tention was given to every word I said — a fact which seemed
-significant. I spoke for an hour and treated Luther’s career just
as I would have done before an American audience. At the end
there was extraordinary applause and many correspondents,
German as well as American, wished copies of the speech. It was
clear to me that Germans wished me to say in public what they
are not allowed to say in private, especially about religious and
personal freedom.

November 20 Monday. I went today to Von Neurath’s office
to complain about a letter I had written to Leo Wormser, Jew-
ish leader of Chicago, which had been opened here by German
authorities. It was peculiarly oflFensive because the letter bore
the stamp and seals of the United States and because the Jewish
problem has been acute ever since I came to Berlin. The For-
eign Secretary seemed to be quite nonplussed ; but I was sure
he would, or could, do nothing to prevent a recurrence. I wrote
to Wormser for the original to see what the German Govern-
ment had learned about me.

November 21. Tuesday. My wife and I had dinner with Dr.
von Bulow tonight. Dr. Schacht was the one guest who inter-
ested me ; there were others, including one or two princes from
the old regime who wore on their arms the Hakenkreuz, sym-
bol of extreme attachment to the Fuehrer. A former naval
commander who had played a role in the World War was pres-
ent and talked of his experiences as though he hoped to have
repetitions soon. Von Bulow and his sister, our hostess, were

70 OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4 , I 934

quite modest but still willing to talk of their family as dating
back to the 13th century and composing 1,500 members, scat-
tered all over Germany and meeting occasionally to celebrate
their fame. Many were lost in the World War. There was no
hint that any of them thought the Germans had been wrong in
that struggle.

November 23. Thursday. A young social worker from Balti-
more who had been in Germany two years came at noon. She
reviewed for a second time her experiences as a student of
existing German conditions. She was first in sympathy with the
republican regime here and lived in a German family until she
learned the language almost perfectly. She was roughly treated
by the Nazi regime, but continued her studies of labour and con-
centration camps. Existing authorities then reversed their atti-
tude and escorted her all about the country. She reported the
existence of huge ammunition plants, the arbitrary behaviour of
Dr. Robert Ley, head of the Labour Front, and the sometimes
stubborn refusal of workers in a great factory in Bavaria to give
him the demanded Hitler greeting. She wishes to lecture in
the United States and Charles R. Crane wishes to support her
in this, I warned her that whatever she said for or against the
Nazi system, and no one can be exactly neutral, she must not
quote me.

Since the United States Government has recognized Soviet
Russia, I called today at the request of the State Department
on the Soviet Ambassador. He said he had been a student here
about 1888-90 and had taken his doctorate in Berlin. He spoke
German a little more fluently than I do. He impressed me in
no way as an extreme Communist. The talk turned almost ex-
clusively to the Russo-Japanese conflict in Manchuria. Help in
that area seemed one possible result of American recognition,
with trade important only in a secondary degree.

The Associated Press had a photographer waiting as I came
from the office. The Russian had indicated his willingness to
have a photo made of us standing together. I demurred a little,
telling him that certain reactionary papers in America would
exaggerate the fact of my call and repeat their attacks upon
Roosevelt for his recognition. He assented quite readily. The

OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934 7I

newspaper man was not a little peeved, from appearances. Per-
haps I was wrong.

At 8.30 we sat down to a great table at Von Neurath’s house
on Hermann Goringstrasse, near the Brandenburger Tor. The
dinner was elaborate The Turkish Ambassador was the guest
of honour ; we were second in the great procession of thirty peo-
ple from the reception-room into the dining-room A countess
of the old regime walked in with me. She was so enthusiastic
a Nazi that conversation on any other subject always, strangely
enough, turned itself to Hitler. She thought the Chancellor
would soon see that the Hohenzollerns came back to the throne.
My wife and I left at 10.30, a little to the disgust of the wife
of the Turkish Ambassador who seemed to think nobody could
possibly leave before she made the first move.

I had an exchange of^words with the Foreign Minister,
learned that his family is an ancient Wurttemburg one and that
earlier members of it have played conspicuous roles in German
history. His library contains some rare pictures, books and a
copy of Prince von Bulow’s famous autobiography of which
the younger Von Bulow never says anything. It is a book of
wonderful egotism, although it contains much truth about the
German role in the last half century before his death. I no-
ticed the four thick volumes, but made no comment on their
contents.

November 24, Friday. James Hazen Hyde, New Yorker
whom Theodore Roosevelt was once pressed to appoint Am-
bassador to France, now living in Paris and married to an at-
tractive French woman, called this morning to talk over French-
German relations. He is well informed and still wealthy, al-
though not half so rich as formerly. He has endowed a chair in
the Sorbonne for an American professorship-exchange with
Harvard. He remained a full hour and was far more agreeable
and better informed than most millionaires I have met.

The Soviet Ambassador, about to leave for Moscow, came
to return my call of yesterday. At night we were guests of
Louis Lochner and Miss Sigrid Schultz at the annual press ball,
a dinner-dance. I sat opposite the famous Franz von Papen
whose espionage role in Washington was such that my friend

72 OCTOBER 12, 1933 MARCH 4, 1934

Louis Brownlow, now of the University of Chicago^ had to
arrest him He was ordered out of the country a little before
the United States entered the World War. He is now Vice-
Chancellor of the new Reich but without any real administra-
tive function Being a Catholic he has been used for papal con-
tact purposes and he is reported to have betrayed his former
party leader, Heinrich Bruemng, ex-Chancellor, now in hiding,
m a way not unbecoming his record in Washington.

His wife sat on my right and seemed in no way uncomfort-
able in my presence. We did not talk of Von BernstoriEF’s famous
work in America during Wilson’s Presidency. She boasted of
our university system. Her son had been a student at George-
town University. The dinner was a bore, though the company
present might under other circumstances have been most in-
forming. Frangois-Poncet, Von Neurath, Sir Eric Phipps and
other leaders of the diplomatic corps were near us The
photographers never tired of making snaps.

JSTovember 57. Monday. Mr. Kittridge of the Rockefeller
Foundation called to talk over possible withdrawal of support
here. I advised against that policy but urged greater care in
applying funds so that real men with free minds now under
terrible pressure might not be silenced for good and all He
named Professor Hermann Oncken as one of the Rockefeller
advisers. I know Oncken is in an embarrassing position and
dares not write history frankly as we may do at home, if we
try, though our history has never yet been written correctly.

November 2 g Wednesday. We started in our little car at
10.30 for Dresden where I am speaking at a Thanksgiving
dinner tomorrow night at the famous Bellevue Hotel. It was a
cold, dreary day, the roads very crooked, and only one town
on the way, Juterbog, was of any historic interest. We stopped
there and had a plain country dinner at two marks each. The
hotel was of ancient build and the service was such as Martin
Luther and Johan Tetzel might have had when the latter was
selling Papal indulgences in the town in 1507-1517. It is a 14th
century town with its old walls still standing, three great gates
and one famous church But neither royalist tradition nor

OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4 , 1034 73

Lutheran creed prevents Nazi flags and uniforms from being
flaunted on every possible occasion.

November 30. Thursday. I read President Roosevelt’s Thanks-
giving Proclamation before about fifty people in the Ameri-
can Church at Dresden. At 8 30 a company of 150 Ameri-
cans and Germans gathered in the Bellevue for dinner. I spoke
fifteen or twenty minutes about Roosevelt and his talk, but not
for press comment.

A young German, Herbert von Gutschow, who had lived
ten years in the United States and become closely connected
with James B Duke, North Carolina’s greatest buccaneer, and
then set up branches of the American Tobacco Company in
Germany, came after my speech to our table and talked half
an hour. It was plain that one effect of the war had been to
make him chief owner of the Duke tobacco interests in Ger-
many, with Dresden as headquarters. He is a very rich man,
entirely reconciled to the Hitler system, even though he has
been compelled to endow some one hundred and fifty couples
of his employees under the present marriage law of the Third
Reich.

Gutschow is one of the many big business men who expect to
govern Germany under the Nazi regime. August Diehn of Ber-
lin, head of a world- wide nitrate trust, and Fritz Thyssen, steel
and munitions manufacturer, are among the others. Gutschow
is clever though not liberal in social philosophy ; but I am con-
vinced that he and all the rest are allowed great tax exemptions
for their support. Six or eight of them sit in semi-official Cabi-
net sessions on occasions when any crisis threatens Consul-Gen-
eral Messersmith has explained to me how great corporations
here escape heavy taxation, far more than in America. My Dres-
den acquaintance talked for an hour about the marvellous suc-
cess of his tobacco and cigarette business here and urged as his
opinion that Adam Smith must again become the economic
master of public men.

December i. Friday. We set out for Prague over the moun-
tainous road to the south-east. A beautiful and fertile country
aU the way, about 125 miles. There was snow most of the time,

G2

74 OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4 , 1034

though people were still working in the fields I never saw such
magnificent pine forests as those which cover the mountains.
We arrived about 4 in the famous old Huss city.

At 6.30 I talked with Eduard Benes, the Czechoslovak Pre-
mier, confidentially. He is to all intents and purposes the Presi-
dent of the ancient Bohemia so hated for hundreds of years in
Germany. He is not optimistic, and says the Germans are
determined on annexing a part if not all of his country. He sees
the Hungarian Foreign Secretary tomorrow, Saturday, and then
goes to Paris where Balkan-Italian rivalries are up for discus-
sion. He impressed me as very clever and ready to fight at the
drop of a hat.

December 2. Saturday, We started back to Dresden at ii
o’clock, snow everywhere and the weather quite cold. We had
a somewhat risky drive over the mountains and arrived in the
city about 6 o’clock. Stopping at the Hotel Eden, we remained
incognito and had a very delightful dinner at the Kaiserhof.
To bed early, the Eden being too cold for comfort except in
bed.

December 3. Sunday, The family drove via Juterbog to Ber-
lin while I took the train, third class, at 8.50 marks. A German
commercial salesman was in the same compartment and I
learned a good deal from him about public opinion and so-
called recovery. He was not a Nazi but hopeful of improve-
ment and willing to wait until fair trial had been granted.

December 4, Monday, John Foster Dulles, legal counsel for
associated American banks, called at noon to give an account
of claims being urged on behalf of bondholders against German
cities and corporations, more than a billion dollars. He seemed
very clever and also resolute. He will have a conference with
Reichsbank directors tomorrow.

December 5, Tuesday, We arrived in Munich at 8 o’clock
this morning and went first to the Hotel Kaiserhof. It seemed
too cold. Then we inspected the Regina where more comfort-
able rooms were found, but they were still rather cold.

OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934 75

I spoke for an hour tonight on “The Beginnings of First
Social Order in the United States.” Although I cannot believe
more than half the audience understood what I said, there was
extreme silence, except for applause now and then when I de-
scribed some early American democratic ideals. This I took as
evidence of the audience’s disapproval of the restraints put upon
men in Germany.

December 6 , Wednesday, I received a long-distance message
from the Embassy that William Bullitt, new Ambassador to
Russia, would lunch with us Saturday. I was told that the
Soviet Foreign Commissar, Maxim Litvinov, returmng via
Rome from Washington, would join Bullitt in Berlin. I de-
cided to return via Nurnberg so as to have them at our
house.

December g, Saturday, Ambassador Bullitt came alone, Lit-
vinov having hurried off to Moscow. Bullitt said Roosevelt sent
cordial regards and thanks for my work here and then added
that Russian recognition had been too long delayed. He also
said Litvinov had agreed to pay the debt of $100,000,000 and
to open Russian markets to American industrial goods and leave
Germans in the lurch since they were indignant at Hitler at-
tacks upon all Communists. One more thrust at the Third Reich.
But Germans owe Americans over a billion dollars. How can
these be paid if German markets are closed, z.^., if the United
States monopolizes Russian markets and still further isolates
the Germans. Collect one hundred milhons from Moscow and
lose one billion in Berlin. Bullitt never referred to this.

We walked to our house at 1.30 for luncheon where we had
a party of ten, including the Russian Charge d’ Affaires, the
German Foreign Office specialist on Russia, Counsellor White,
Ambassador Cudahy and others. It was, an interesting group,
though little could be said because of the conflicting attitudes
of Germans and Russians.

Sir Eric Phipps, the British Ambassador, called at our house
tonight to show me points of Chancellor Hitler’s offer to treat
with the French on disarmament. About October 15, details
were wired to Washington: Germany must have a standing

76 OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934

army of 300,000, guns and defensive airplanes. Now, Hitler
oflFers to submit the same scheme again and adds that the Ger-
mans wish a ten-year pact against war and will agree to an in-
ternational commission to inspect and supervise armaments, in-
cluding supervision of the S.A. and S.S. troops, 2,500,000
strong.

These offers had been cabled to London and the reply of Sir
John Simon was submitted to me. It looked to me like a real
move towards disarmament and I agreed to telegraph a sum-
mary to Washington.

December 10. Sunday. I was still meditating Sir Eric Phipps’
negotiations. I called him at 10 and said : I shall be walking at
1 1.30 on the Hermann Goringstrasse alongside the Tiergarten ;
would you be able to meet me there and talk for a while? He
agreed and we spent a half hour going over disarmament prob-
lems. My points were these: Japan, according to certain diplo-
matic information, is apt to attack Vladivostok next April or
May ; second, if the United States were to support the German-
British position on disarmament, would the British lend moral
support to American opposition to Japanese aggression in the
Far East? ; third, did he not think it would be far better for an
Enghsh-German-French pact to be made on disarmament than
to take the chance of an eventual Italian-German-Russian deal
which might force France into a dictatorship?

Sir Eric was not disposed to accept the Japanese danger; he
wished Amencan moral support but indicated, indirectly, that
England had recognized Japanese claims in Manchuria. He
seemed ready to acknowledge the danger to world peace if
autocracies of Central Europe were allowed to compel French
submission. We ended our conversation in agreement on one
general point, a ten-year peace pact for Europe, initiated and
pressed by England, Germany and the United States, v/ould
be far more effective if Russia were a party to it and peace in
the Far East were also fixed. I thought the English ought to
compromise, then President Roosevelt might negotiate and
Europe would be out of its impasse. I returned to the Embassy
and hurried off a telegram to the State Department with a
request that it be discussed with the President.

OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4 , 1934 77

December 20 Wednesday, The papers carry stories of the
week-end visit of Sir Eric Phipps to London, his reception by
the King at Windsor, his visit to Sir John Simon, and the pro-
posed visit of the latter to Paris and Rome, all to iron out dif-
ficulties between Germany and France. Sir Eric is generous-
minded and, in my judgment, frank and open ; but Sir John, the
Foreign Secretary in London, is everywhere regarded as tricky;.

William and Martha attended a birthday party at the Souse
of the Crown Prince at Potsdam, son of Kaiser William II.
They reported a delightful evening and hearty cordiality. One
of the sons is now in the United States working for Henry
Ford. Another is a student of law at the University of Berlin
and a most charming young fellow but clearly aware of the
greatness of his ancestry.

December 21. Thursday, Sir Eric is again in Berlin and spent
an hour with Von Neurath, although the latter was due to leave
for Wurttemberg for the Christmas season Von Neurath had
surprised me a few days ago by his concern about the imminence
of war in the Far East and his distinct interest m Soviet Russia.
He said Japan would invade Russia in case of war and that the
result would be chaos m Russia.

December 22, Friday, A newspaper man, whose information
I have found always to be reliable but whose name I dare not
mention even in this diary, came to me this morning to say that
a high German official — my guess is Secret Police Chief Rolf
Diels — had told him that tomorrow the German Supreme Court
would declare all the Communists except Van der Lubbe, on
trial since September for burning the Reichstag, not guilty. But
Georgi Dimitrov, the Bulgarian Communist, disowned by his
own country, was to be murdered before he could get out of
the country, by order of the Prussian Prime Minister, Goering.
My friend’s informant went on to say, 'T know my life is in
danger when I speak to you, but I have had several terrible
nights and must let you know in the hope you can do something
which will cause the order to be annulled.” My newspaper
friend was perturbed, refused to give me the name of the offi-
cial informant but avowed that the murder of Dimitrov was

78 OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4, 1934

certain unless something were done immediately to inform the
world.

It is a curious case. In my judgment the official who gave the
information is the one man in Germany who knows exactly who
burned the Reichstag. In November he was threatened by
Goering with concentration camp for an undisclosed reason,
but was merely removed from office early in December. Late
in November, Consul-General Messersmith reported that he,
Diels, felt his life in danger and he wished I might help him
in some way. Messersmith could do nothing. I had no approach
personally to any high official who had his case in hand, and I
could do nothing. Two weeks later, he was reported as restored
to his office, after an interim during which it was announced
Goering was functioning as Chief of Secret Police. I think it
was all a ruse, perhaps to intimidate Diels because he possesses
damaging information.

At 1 1 30, Sir Eric Phipps brought the official British reply to
Hitler’s statement which had been submitted to me before Sir
Eric took it to London. The British agree with the German de-
mands except that they ask further reduction of the German
Reichswehr and one or two more specific statements about
armaments. It looked reasonable. Sir Eric said Von Neurath
had indicated Hitler’s approval and hoped England could bring
France into the negotiations soon after January i. I have heard
from Washington that government officials there are alarmed
at a rumour that Great Britain is contemplating a large loan to
Japan which would, in the opinion of our officials, encourage
Japan to make war on the Soviet Union.

At 4 my newspaper informant reported that the London
afternoon papers had carried the story of the possible killing
of Dimitrov which a news agency had got from him. He had
then framed a story for the American press which could in no
way injure anyone who had given him information but which
would react tomorrow in Germany in such a way as to save
Dimitrov’s life. He said : ‘T do not regret what I have done.
It is more of a service to Germany and to peace negotiations
than anything else I could have done. If I had done nothing,
the terrible deed would have been perpetrated and the outside
world would have been in furore.”

OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4 , 1034 79

I could not say him no, though it was clear he had taken a
risky action. He showed me a telegram to the foreign press
from Goebbels denying the whole story, but blaming Goering,
fellow member of the triumvirate, with indiscreet statements
which caused the ‘‘lie’’ to be spread about the world. I am
awaiting the arrival of British and American news. Of course
the German papers will carry nothing. There may be a sad
aftermath to this.

December 25, Christmas Day. German demonstrations are
extraordinary : Christmas trees at public squares and in every
house I saw. One might think the Germans believed in Jesus
or practised his teachings !

I stopped by this afternoon at the home of my journalist
friend. After a moment’s admiration of the Christmas decora-
tions, I took him aside and learned that his friend in high
office had thanked him for the effective way he had handled
the press matter, committing no one and yet producing a reac-
tion in official circles here. Goering being away, his substitute
ordered the Saxon police to take the released prisoners in charge
and see that they were safely kept and were not allowed to
cross over the Prussian border, lest the order to put Dimitrov
out of the way be executed. So the matter rests.

I believe there was some order issued by Goering before his
departure, that Diels, very hostile to Goering and in danger all
the time, ventured to defeat the order to save Germany the
terrible reaction which would have come from all over the
world. The Secret Police Chief did a most dangerous thing
and I shall not be surprised later to hear that he has been sent
to prison. The only safety he has is his immense knowledge of
the details of the Reichstag burning and the possibility that
his proof may be lodged outside of Germany.

January j, 1534. Monday. All the members of the diplo-
matic corps made a point to be in town today to pay their
respects and good wishes to President von Hindenburg, eighty-
six years old on his last birthday. We drove to the Presidential
Palace, where we were conducted into a large waiting-room on
the second floor, being greeted as we entered by servants in

8 o OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4 , 1034

uniform giving the Hitler salute. I fell m with Sir Eric Phipps,
M Frangois-Poncet and the Spanish Ambassador. At 12 sharp
we took our places, standing all around the large and ornate
reception-room of the President’s Palace.

Soon Von Hindenburg greeted the Papal Nuncio, senior
diplomat, and the latter read a rather formal New Year’s greet-
ing in French which it was evident the President did not under-
stand and which I also did not follow. The President replied
in a formally written speech, mentioning the ‘‘rebirth” of Ger-
many and touching delicately upon the meaning of the Hitler
regime, a subject for which hardly a member of the corps
showed any sympathy.

When these formalities were over Von Hindenburg spoke a
few words with the Nuncio and then talked cordially with
M. Frangois-Poncet who understands and speaks German very
well. After greeting M Cerruti, the Italian Ambassador, in the
same way, he shook hands with me, asked me how my son Wil-
liam’s work in the University of Berlin was progressing, went
out of his way to flatter me about my German, which is rather
ready if inaccurate. We then exchanged remarks about Pro-
fessor Oncken, the famous historian Mommsen and, at the
Reichs President’s suggestion, “the great Von Treitschke,” who
was not great in my judgment. He walked a little badly, lean-
ing upon his cane, but talked glibly and intelligently. He seems
to know intellectual Germany.

Then came Hitler who, as I had observed all along^ seemed
very much subdued, almost embarrassed. Hitler greeted me
with “Happy New Year” and I returned it. Only the Italian
Ambassador answered the Fuehrer’s official salute. I asked
the Chancellor if he had not spent his Christmas at Munich.
I said we spent two days in Munich early in December and that
I had greatly enjoyed the visit, that I had met a fine German
historian. Professor Meyer, a former fellow student with me at
Leipzig whom I think a really good scholar and thinker. Hitler
was a little nonplussed and indicated that he had never heard of
Meyer I mentioned other Munich University matters only to
get no response, and he passed on, leaving the impression that
he had never had contact with the people I knew and respected.
He showed no such interest as the President showed; I am

8i

OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934

afraid he thought I was trying to embarrass him a little. I was
not. There was, however, no diplomatic or political subject we
could mention these touchy times.

January 3. Wednesday, The foreign press today carries a
story that there was a hard fight on the morning of January i
between Hitler and Goering about the failure to apply the
decree of two months ago to the effect that all Germany was
to be co-ordinated, i,e , all the ancient states — Prussia, Bavaria,
Saxony and the rest — were to be cast into one and then sub-
divided into some hundred or more equal-sized districts each
to be ruled by a district leader appointed by the Chancellor.

The order had been issued and everyone supposed that it
was to become effective this year, thus abandoning states and
legislatures. But on January i. Hitler and Goebbels found
themselves challenged by Goering, supported by the Governor
of Bavaria. There was apparently a sharp conflict for some days
because Hitler sent no New Year’s greeting to Goering, only
to apologize on January 2 It was this struggle, which had been
decided in favour of Goering, on January i, before the diplo-
matic reception by Von Hmdenburg, which in my judgment
gave Hitler’s countenance such a dejected look that morning.

Tt was really an important issue, for the German people are
clearly opposed to Hitler’s position m this matter, as they are
opposed to his plan of putting all Protestants under one State
Bishop and into one solid phalanx. From 3,000 to 4,000 preach-
ers are resisting to the limit. These two issues reveal a good
deal of the spirit of Germany, though no speeches are allowed
and the press never does more than mention the fact that cer-
tain decrees have been postponed in their application. In these
cases concentration camp and beatings are not applied, but there
is a powerful silent resistance.

I received a cable advising a protest to German officials against
Schacht’s ruling that interest on German bonds held in the
United States must be decreased from previous reduced pay-
ments, 50 per cent in real values and 50 per cent in promises
to pay, to 30 per cent in real value and 70 per cent in promises
to pay. I was also to add that the manner of doing it was
highly objectionable, that is, without consulting creditors and

82 OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934

then buying back German bonds when their values fell to low
points on the New York market.

As Von Neurath and Von Bulow were away on their vaca-
tions, I saw Dr. Koepke, acting for the Secretary, and made
two points rather strongly: i. The sudden announcement that
Germany would not pay, without conference, was inconsiderate ;
German cities which had borrowed huge sums are not insolvent ;
great public buildings constructed out of American funds con-
stantly advertised the nature of the loans ; and known buying
of large blocks of bonds on American markets looked bad, like
stock-market manipulation. 2. This sort of conduct was arousing
millions of Americans and causing the government to take an
active role whereas formerly it had been disposed to leave such
private matters to the banks which had originally sold the bonds
and made profits from so doing. I stressed the point that the
German Government could not afford to appear in the actions
of its national bank as a mere stock mampulator

Koepke agreed with both my points and indicated that the
Foreign Office had not been consulted. He also made plain that
such rulings were wrong, that Germany could pay her obliga-
tions, at least the great cities could, and that the speculative
aspects of Schacht’s rulings were unworthy. I came away quite
sure that the Foreign Office would try to bring Schacht to a
more co-operative way of doing things, but doubting still
whether they would succeed. Schacht is the real master and
government officials here dare not order him to do anything.

January 5. Friday. Bishop John L. Neilson of the Methodist
Episcopal Church in the United States, now a resident of
Zurich and supervising Methodists in Central Europe, called
to talk over Protestant church problems in Germany. He
showed an intimate acquaintance with the recent religious con-
flict here and thought splendid the Lutheran resistance to Nazi
efforts to force all church people into one solid National Church,
even worshipping Wotan and adopting the myths of the early
German people.

He said American Methodists here had been assured of their
independent status, but they must not proselytize Germans. His
story was much like that of Dr. Charles MacFarland in Octo-

OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4, 1934 83

ber. I wonder whether the Germans of 1934 have the courage
of Luther and will simply say * “We cannot surrender; burn us
if you will !” If Lutherans say this. Catholics are apt to support
them.

January 6*. Saturday, The Swedish Minister, M. C. E. af
Wirsen, came in to say that he was going to the German For-
eign Office to make the same protest I had made about debts.
Germans owe the Swedes large sums.

At noon the Dutch Minister, Limburg-Stirum, an able and
experienced diplomat, came to voice his agreement on the debt
question, though German discrimination in favour of the Dutch
was not discussed. I simply let him know that I knew the Ger-
mans were paying his people the full face value of bonds and
the regular rate of interest. Schacht argues that this is because
the Dutch buy more German goods than they sell of their own
to Germany.

Limburg-Stirum dwelt much more upon Japanese aggression
in China. He said Japanese generals were organizing independ-
ent governments in former portions of China, aimed at setting
up a Far Eastern League of Nations under Japanese domina-
tion. He added that Holland’s possessions in the Far East, also
the Philippines, would soon fall into Japanese hands if the
United States did not strongly resist, and especially if England
continued to give underhand support to Japanese aggression.

January g, Tuesday, I had luncheon at the Hotel Adlon as
the guest of the American Chamber of Commerce. The Russian
Ambassador read a very discreet address on Communist com-
mercial policy. He was well received. He went the limit in
approval of the United States. I think he is one of the best
equipped diplomats in Berlin and personally not much of a
communist

January xo, Wednesday, Dr. Otto Vollbehr of Washington,
the man who sold the Gutenberg Bible to the Library of Con-
gress about 1929, came to see me. He had tried later to propa-
gandize American university professors in Germany. I had pro-
tested against this in more than one letter to him, but he did

84 OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4, I 934

not refer to my rebukes to him. He said he had visited the
Propaganda Ministry, that he had talked with Ambassador
Luther in Washington, and that he had an appointment with
Hitler in a day or two. He was not altogether discreet, but I
thought he wished to let me guess that he had come to Berlin
on a special mission. I warned him as to the harmfulness of
propaganda. He pretended entire agreement and departed in
good humour.

January //. Thursday, My wife gave her first general recep-
tion. It was a tiresome affair but it was the only way to renew
acquaintance with many people who had left cards. The
expense was around $200.

January 16, Tuesday, The American Minister in Vienna,
George Earle, called at 1 1 o’clock. He is one of the rich men
appointed to foreign posts who know little history of their own
or any other country. He is good-natured and very anti-Nazi
I had seen him before, when he came here to report on Austrian
problems some time in November.

I then thought he had made a good survey of Austrian con-
ditions. Since that time he has shown rather curious attitudes
for a Minister in so critical a zone as Vienna. He went once to
Prague, out of his diplomatic territory, and denounced the
German Nazis in Czechoslovakia in a manner which caused a
protest to the American Legation there. A few days before last
Christmas, he wired me to dine with him at a public dinner in
honour of Dollfuss, the Austrian Chancellor, so hated in Ger-
many that he dares not put his foot on German soil. I wired
that I could not accept. It would have made a sensation of the
first order if I had gone to Vienna, and Earle would have been
even worse off than he is.

He related some of his disagreeable experiences with Nazi
chiefs in Vienna, including threats against his life, and told of
Dollfuss’ dangerous position, with the prospect of devaluation
constantly confronting him. When he asked if I wished to send
any messages to the President, I declined, as the pouch was
leaving anyway the next day. But I asked the poor fellow to
lunch.

OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934 85

Sitting with the family at table Earle related his experiences
again. One day while hunting in the Austrian Tyrol, he had
been shot at and his boot torn half off. He left his boots on
the train as he went home so as not to let his wife know what
had happened. “That is Nazi Austria/’ he said, “and any time
the leaders of the old army element turn Nazi, Dollfuss will be
overthrown and there will be chaos.” He added that the Nazis
say : “Hitler is Jesus Christ for the whole of Europe and every-
body must recognize it. If the Jews keep on resisting in Austria,
the greatest pogrom in history will be executed.”

Earle’s conversation was good. He is intelligent, but he has
a rich man’s estimate of social values For instance, servants,
valets, butlers were to him a mark of distinction. He thought
it terrible that less than 300 families m Vienna had as many^
as three servants each. I sent him to his tram in my car as a
means of protection in case the Secret Police were watching.

January ly, Wednesday. A message came from Louis Lochner
that the church problem had taken a curious turn yesteirday.
The new Nazi Reichsbishop Ludwig Mueller was in session
with fifteen or more bishops and other church leaders. Chancel-
lor Hitler came to explain to them that he and the President
had agreed to the Protestants’ claim for freedom from the con-
trol of the new pagan state religion called Deutsche Christen,
Mueller being the head of this movement.

When Hitler had finished and a compromise seemed about
to be worked out, Goering, a Catholic though not in good
standing with Rome, walked uninvited into the conference
room and made a violent speech : “I have a record of all of your
conversations over the telephone for the last month. You Prot-
estant trouble-makers have been most unloyal. You are trying
to break up the unity of the State. You have gone so far as to
persuade the Chancellor to surrender. I think most of you are
on the borderline of treason.” The meeting broke up and all
agreements were cancelled, though another meeting may follow.

January ig. Friday. The Dutch Minister at dinner on the
1 6th informed me of a long-distance call he had made to the
Bank of Holland in Amsterdam, instructing them to call the

86 OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4 , 1034

Westminster Bank in London regarding an official British loan
to the Japanese. The London bank assured them that no loan
was at all possible

My wife and family attended a party of Baron Eberhard
von Oppenheim who is a Jew still living in style near us. Many
Nazi Germans were present. It is reported that Oppenheim
has given the Nazi Party 200,000 marks and has been given a
special Party dispensation which declared him an Aryan.

January 22. Monday. I went today to see Dr. Schacht in his
office at the Reichsbank. He was very conciliatory. He read
aloud the protest which I gave him and said he agreed sub-
stantially with all that was said. He would confer with the
Foreign Office and send me a reply at 5 o’clock He added that
the one thing he wanted and had asked was a delegation from
all the bondholders with power to act, i ^., power of attorney
to each national delegation authorizing reduction of rates of
interest from 7 per cent to 4 or 4^ per cent He thought all
bonds everywhere were on the market at lower rates or were
being defaulted and felt the German Government should not be
expected to pay so high a rate. I agreed that some such arrange-
ment should be made.

The Belgian Minister came again to my office and talked for
half an hour very despondently about the difficulty of main-
taining peace. He emphasized the dangers to his country, its
close reliance upon England and the atrocities of the German
occupation. He expressed no scepticism on the last point He
agreed there is a lot of talk about a ‘‘preventive war” in French
official circles, fearing this would mean general war.

John Foster Dulles of New York and Laird Bell of Chicago
followed the Minister and reported readiness for the debt con-
ference which Schacht had called, the English delegation ar-
riving tomorrow. I had a message from President Roosevelt
that the American Government was much concerned and hoped
I could render assistance. Dulles and Bell were described as
official spokesmen of creditors holding more than a billion dol-
lars. American bankers had loaned this after the Dawes and
Young negotiations, at high rates, issued bonds in New York
and sold them at $90 to the public, taking enormous profits

OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4, 1934 87

for themselves. Money was put into city, state and corporation
improvements, a vast building scheme like that of 1922-1929
in the United States. Now my job is to save as much of this as
possible. The National City and Chase National banks hold
$100,000,000 of these securities. Last June Roosevelt said:

. . the bankers have gotten themselves into this. You must
lend what personal, unofficial aid you can, but no more.” Now
the creditors, the New York bankers, have organized and
pressed the government into fighting their battles. I shall do
what I can but agree with the Germans that rates of interest
ought to be reduced to 4 per cent.

At 1.30 Ivy Lee and his son James came to lunch. Ivy Lee
showed himself at once a capitalist and an advocate of Fascism.
He told stories of his fight for Russian recogmtion and was
disposed to claim credit for it. His sole aim was to increase
American business profits.

January 23. Tuesday. Messrs. Bell, Dulles, Junius Wood of
the Chicago Daily News and Joseph Flack of the Embassy staff
came to lunch. They talked about the conference over debts
which has broken up into private discussions between the dif-
ferent delegations. They expect to persuade the Dutch and
Swiss to yield their advantages after the present terms have
expired, which will be in June of this year.

January 24. Wednesday Newspaper people showed such in-
creasing interest in the debt conference that I invited them to
meet me at 5 o’clock. They came and I went over the problems,
explained Schacht’s attitude and mentioned the bankers’ large
measure of responsibility

January 23. Thursday. I went to a Bierabend at the mansion
of Ernst Roehm, Chief of Staff of the S.A. He had recently
served as a messenger of Hitler to Rome. I was introduced to
the host m all his decorations. How the German Nazis love
decorations! Von Neurath and the Italian Ambassador were
present. I stayed half an hour, then left, politely, I thought,
for home.

88 OCTOBER I 2 y 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934

January 26. Friday, Dr. Wilbur K Thomas, of Philadelphia,
representative of the American branch of the Carl Schurz
Foundation, called to report on his month of travel all over
Germany. Not one man had spoken to him favourably of the
Nazi policies towards the churches, universities and the outside
world. He said hundreds of Germans had talked to him This
also is my experience everywhere except in the presence of
uniformed people. He said he had stopped the Carl Schurz
Foundation from engaging in propaganda work in America We
shall see.

January sg, Monday, Ivy Lee again came with his son James
to report on his experiences here during the week of his stay.
Lee did nearly all the talking. He had seen Goebbels an hour,
had talked freely with Dr. Kurt Schmitt, Minister of Eco-
nomics, and other key men He had warned Goebbels to cease
propaganda in the United States, urged him to see the foreign
press people often and learn how to get along with them.

Lee said that Dr. Schmitt and Dr. Dieckhoff of the Foreign
OfHce had suggested expulsion of foreign press correspondents,
which I had suspected was contemplated here. Lee said he
warned the Foreign Office that such an act would rum the Nazi
movement.

Lee had not seen Hitler, though I suspect he had hoped to
have an interview, I told him something of the delicate situa-
tion in Vienna He replied that he had urged the Party leaders to
abandon their propaganda in Austria on the theory that thus they
would soon win that nation into the German Nazi orbit ! From
all I have learned these last eight months, the Austrians have
grown so sick of the methods practised here that they, like the
Germans of Czechoslovakia, would be unwilling to join the
German Reich. Lee was on his way back home, via Paris, to
New York to continue his strange work.

January 30, Tuesday, I went to a Bierabend at Alfred Rosen-
berg’s. He is the head of the Foreign Office of the Nazi Party.
The Minister of Justice for Bavaria spoke of the new laws
enacted to secure the unity of Germany, the subordination of
the Jews, and the new spirit of the Nazi state which he thought

OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4, 1034 89

almost perfect. He subscribed to a Nazi version of the Hegelian
philosophy of state : all peasants and workers in the cities are
happy to serve the Nazi state, without thought of self. On my
right sat a member of the Propaganda Ministry. I asked him
if he believed workers and peasants were so happily absorbed
in the state. He said . ^‘Yes, absolutely.’’ Rosenberg sat on my
left but he did not talk like an educated, trained man, even
though he is the author of a famous Nazi classic. The Myth of
the Twentieth Century.

January 31. Wednesday, I attended a dinner at Dr. Kurt
Schmitt’s in Dahlem. He is Minister of Economics and lives
in a large house fitted out in grand style, though in good taste.
The party included some aristocrats of the old days but they
were not in the least pretentious. Schmitt is a Bavarian and a
big landlord He seems to be a most loyal Hitlerite though
his public speeches show him to be courageous in opposition to
some Nazi policies. The day of my arrival in Berlin he deliv-
ered an address on economic recovery which I thought notable
though conservative.

February i, Thursday, This day illustrates the folly of the
diplomatic world. At 8 30, after a busy morning and afternoon
at the office, my wife and I went to the Italian Ambassador’s
palace. At a time when Italy declares herself unable to pay any
part of the billion dollar debt due the United States for pre-
serving her existence in 1918, M. Vittorio Cerruti, the Ambas-
sador, took us into a palace, newly rebuilt and enlarged, where
the most expensive decorations imaginable adorned every wall.
As we went up the broad, winding stairs, servants attired in
18th-century livery and with wigs dressed and coloured after
the manner of Louis XV’ s time, stood at attention on both
sides of the approaches

In the reception-room there were some some forty guests, the
diplomats in official diplomatic regalia and the Germans in
army or Nazi uniforms The dining-room was the largest we
have yet seen and there was a servant for every fourth guest.
They stood at attention behind the chairs, watching every move-
ment of knife and fork and I know not what else ! I would

go OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4 , 1934

guess the show cost at least $800, and the palace is almost as
great as the White House in Washington while its halls and
rooms are more expensively fitted out. Yet Italy is unable to
pay a dollar of her debt !

I sat on the left of the clever Madame Cerruti, a Hungarian
Jewess, whom the Germans do not dare to embarrass, and who
is such an ardent Hungarian nationalist that she talks all the
time about her “poor stricken country.” She lives hopefully for
the day when it will be restored to mastery of the Balkans. She
hardly spoke of Italy, which her husband represents. There
were masses of expensive flowers on the table, three or four
wine glasses at every place and everything was served on huge
silver platters and m heavy silver dinner plates. There was no
general conversation and nothing of importance mentioned the
whole evening Diplomatic display and strut and nothing more !

From the Cerrutis’ we went to the Hotel Kaiserhof where
we were joined by our children at a grand reception, a stand-up
party given by the Foreign Minister and his wife. The hosts
receive their friends, official Germans and the diplomatic corps,
like this once a year. There must have been at least 700 or more
people. Supper was served on a huge table literally loaded
down with food of all kinds, beer, wine and liquors of all
sorts, and there were servants by the score to assist. It was a
grand show that must have cost more than $1,000, at the
expense of poor Germany ! There was some opportunity for a
little gossip as people gathered in groups to look at one an-
other’s decorations or women’s exposed backs and breasts. We
were duly received, loitered around from 10 30 to ii 15, and
then we took our departure. To me it was quite as useless a
display as the dinner party of the Italians. I have always acted
upon the assumption that people give such entertainments in
order that men may learn something from one another. Not
this evening, I was delighted to return to our quiet home. I
drank a glass of milk and ate a stewed peach before I retired.

February 3, Saturday. Louis Lochner of the Associated Press
and a prominent German religious leader who has supplied
Lochner with much secret church information on the Nazi re-
ligious warfare came to call. It is counted treason in these times

OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4 , 1034 9 I

for a German to give foreign newsmen information unless it is
favourable to the existing regime. This informant told reckless
stories of the Lutheran struggle for freedom of conscience and
Lochner expressed fear that his friend might be thrown into a
concentration camp. I had the idea they wished help in case of
trouble. Both spoke of Dr. MacFarland’s ‘"surrender” to the
Nazis and said that the English Protestants were yielding to
the curious, primitive Aryan Christianity of Hitler and Rosen-
berg. A peculiar religious unity is prevailing here but I believe
the Lutherans will surrender ; the incomes of their clergy come
from the government.

February 7. Wednesday. James G. McDonald came at 3
o’clock to our house. He is the League of Nations High Com-
missioner for German Refugees. The task of his organization
is to help the persecuted to find homes somewhere in the
United States or Latin America His headquarters are to be at
Lausanne, Switzerland, and he is now organizing his staff and
collecting funds.

McDonald impressed me again as not very much enamoured
of his new and difficult position, though his work as planned
seems to me very important, for Hitler is never going to cease
trying to ban all Jews from the Reich. McDonald told me he
had raised 500,000 pounds sterling from English Jews but that
the givers are not enthusiastic and did not wish many German
Jews to enter England. He said that in the United States
“. . . there is much interest m limited circles but no enthusiasm
for taking persecuted Jews into the country.” These people
must have clerical, professional or financial jobs wherever
they migrate and there are few such positions available any-
where.

He wishes to arrange with the Germans for a ten-year plan
for the removal of Jews and the transfer of German property
for their initial support. Von Neurath is not opposed to this
plan, but unable to give any promises. To remove over 600,000
people, most of whom are fairly well-to-do, from any country,
is no easy task. To expel them, as has been tried the last twelve
months, would arouse intense hostility. Perhaps 50,000 have
departed from Germany since Hitler became Chancellor in

g2 OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MaRGH 4 , I 934

January, 1933. McDonald remained an hour talking over his
difficulties

At 8 30 vve went to dinner with the President of the Reich
in his palace on the Wilhelmstrasse. There were fifty diplomats
in gala attire present, servants as numerous as m the Italian
palace. There was a military tone to the evening. I sat between
the wives of the Russian and Italian Ambassadors, the Russian
very simple and peasant-hke, the Italian like a French lady-in-
waiting of former times. Von Hindenburg himself was appar-
ently quite vigorous looking.

After dinner we stood in the beautiful reception hall with
18th-century paintings of Roman subjects on the walls. Chan-
cellor Hitler moved rather gracefully about speaking somewhat
freely. Von Hindenburg retired to a magnificent neighbouring
room where he received his guests sitting. When I went in and
sat down for what was intended to be a brief talk, I noticed Von
Neurath came in and sat down near me. I retired promptly.
Perhaps Von Hindenburg would have talked frankly Von
Neurath, in my judgment, intended to prevent that. We came
away at 10 30 as suggested on our invitation cards. While the
entertainment was good and the attitudes less formal than at
other places, I do not think the evening added to anybody’s
information about anything.

February 10, Saturday, William and Martha gave a ball for
120 people to whom they felt under obligations. It was a gala
affair. Prince Friedrich Hohenzollern and the great violinist
Kreisler and others were present. I retired at one o’clock.

February 15, Thursday, The Soviet Ambassador called to
talk over Far Eastern problems. He is uneasy about Man-
choukuo^and also the railway controversy with Japan. My feel-
ing IS that the situation is not so ominous as when Bullitt passed
through.

We had a grand dinner attended by twenty-two diplomats,
but nothing to compare with the Belgian or even the Rumanian
displays which we have attended. It was an agreeable evening,
although there were too many guests for real acquaintanceship
or good conversation, except in the corner groups that sat down

OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934 93

together after leaving the table. The cost was perhaps $ioo or
$200, terribly simple for an ambassador

February ly, Saturday, We had dinner with the Danish Min-
ister, fifty people present, a grand stand-up party. It is dreary
to have to repeat the tiresomeness of these affairs, but they
seem to be a part of this life.

February 20. Tuesday, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht called at 4 30
to propose a scheme for the U.S Government to assist Ameri-
can creditors to better faith in German payment of interest and
principal by some sort of guarantee until Germans can buy
$500,000,000 worth of cotton and then sell cotton to other
countries. He says he could convince Roosevelt in fifteen min-
utes, and then American foreign trade would greatly improve,
German credit become good and creditors would be satisfied.
I did not quite understand his scheme but sent a report to the
State Department. Somehow I came to think that Dr Schacht
could carry his scheme through successfully if given the power.
Contrary to public opinion at home, I am amazed and impressed
at the great German financier who manipulates German credits
and debits so cleverly that, although he has little gold, he keeps
his currency value at par and business stable. I wonder if he can
get his cotton scheme accepted.

February 21, Wednesday, James Gannon, of the Chase Na-
tional Bank, New York, called to report a satisfactory con-
ference with the German Reichsbank about the hundreds of
millions of dollars in loans known as ^'stillstand” agreement
loans. He was quite satisfied and gave Schacht the highest
rating for cleverness and honesty.

February 23, Friday, I attended a dinner at Roehm’s, Chief
of Staff of the S.A., at his new palace on the Matthaikirche-
strasse, with about fifty people present. Von Neurath sat on my
right and indicated that the League of Nations is essential to
world economic recovery and added Germany ought to return
if economic questions were taken up in Geneva I suspected,
as once before, that he had not favoured German withdrawal

94 OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934

last autumn. On the left of the host sat Sir Eric Phipps, British
Ambassador, who never said a word the whole evening that
could in any way be considered as revealing any kind of attitude
of mind. Two or three Nazi chiefs talked with me a half hour
about the unfortunate character of German leadership over the
last fifty years, except for Bismarck in whose work no error is
ever acknowledged here. I went so far as to say Germans do
not understand their problem, especially as regards foreign rela-
tions. They agreed ; even the Nazis are polite.

February 24, Saturday, Our Minister to Vienna, Mr. Earle,
who went away from his post a month ago, called at 12 o’clock
to report attitudes and opinions of the government and people
at home about Austria and its “revolution.”

He was quite pleased at Roosevelt’s leadership. He said,
however, the President looks much older than he did six months
ago. This is somewhat disturbing to me in view of the person-
alities who might become leaders in case of Roosevelt’s decease
or serious illness

Earle thinks Dollfuss was right in his ruthless handling of
the Socialist rebellion in Austria during the second half of Feb-
ruary. I think Dollfuss was very shortsighted, and believe he
has given the Nazi group in Austria a fine chance of capturing
the government before very long.

February 26, Monday, Another dinner! At 9 o’clock we sat
down in the Herren Klub on the Hermann Goringstrasse, as
guests of Vice-Chancellor and Frau von Papen. He represents
in the Hitler Cabinet the remnant of the Centre Party which
played a great role from the time of Bismarck to 1932. He is
a Catholic and is especially commissioned to rally German opin-
ion for the recovery of the Saar Territory which has been under
French mandate from the League since 1920 as a penalty for
German destruction of French mines during the war. Von
Papen also tries to keep Hitler in contact with the Pope when
difficulties threaten the new Reich from a Catholic direction.
The opinion here is that he is a futile if intriguing person

There were more than fifty people present. My wife sat on
Von Papen’s right, and on both sides of the great semi-quadri-

OCTOBER 12, 1933 TO MARCH 4, 1034 95

lateral table there were counts and countesses, generals, Cabinet
officials galore. Of course the conversation could not be general,
just the small talk of each man between two women and each
woman between two men. When we all marched ceremoniously
out of the dining-room into the great adjoining reception-hall
of the military club, we stood in groups and talked a little and
looked at the many battle scenes as shown on the broad can-
vases of the old Hohenzollern regime. Every picture bore a
military stamp.

The one man I talked a little frankly with was the Finance
Minister, Count Lutz von Schwerin-Krosigk, a Rhodes Scholar
at Oxford before the World War, a soldier on the Western
Front for four years, an under official in the Finance Ministry
after the Versailles Treaty, and now one of the wisest men in
the Hitler Cabinet, I am told. He showed in all he said a
decided attitude of distrust towards the present German drift,
though he did not mention Hitler. He has been a student of
history and a thoughtful observer of events. He is the first
eminent German who has agreed with me that Bismarck failed
in one large undertaking: he angered eminent and honest
leaders when that was entirely unnecessary and he was im-
mensely unpopular in the Foreign Office when he retired. The
Count also acknowledged that the Kaiser had made a terrible
blunder in 1914 when he allowed the military-financial-
industrial groups to drive him into war. No other eminent man
here has ever said this much, though several have implied it.
We departed at ii, our usual hour, and I wrote a while in my
diary when I got home.

February 28, Wednesday. A busy day. I had a long talk with
Dr. Ritter of the Foreign Office about a proposed commission
to go to Washington to negotiate a new commercial treaty with
our government for an increase of imports and exports. It was,
like a favoured-nation treaty, only another way of lowering
tariff walls and of course I was sympathetic. The Assistant
Secretary of the Economics Ministry, Dr. Posse, was to head the
commission.

At 5 o’clock, I went to tea with Propaganda Minister Goeb-
bels who sat down with the Papal Nuncio, the British Ambas-

90 OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934

sador, myself and others of the diplomatic corps At the appro-
priate moment he arose and read a somewhat conciliatory speech
to the diplomats and all the foreign press people It was plain
he was trying to apply the advice which Ivy Lee urged upon
him a month ago and reported very carefully to me. Louis
Lochner replied in a clever, humorous manner, assuming there
would be frank, weekly conferences thereafter with the press.
Goebbels smiled significantly when I happened to catch his eye
at this moment. There were no questions asked or answered
afterwards, which would have been according to British and
American habit.

March 2, Friday We sat down tonight at an informal dinner
with Sir Eric Phipps. There were too many guests for any
really frank talk, except my favourite way, in a corner. I learned
that Anthony Eden, Keeper of the Seals, had been rebuffed in
Paris, perhaps simply put off French popular opinion is re-
ported to be very pacifist, French official and military opinion
to hold that a ^preventive war’’ with Germany should start
this spring. The idea is to catch Germany and to seize the
Rhineland before it is too late.

March 5. Saturday, At 4 o’clock, I sat down for a frank talk
with M. Frangois-Poncet who showed some concern, even anx-
iety, about the attitude of his government on the Eden negotia-
tions. However, he did not reveal his real attitude as I had half
expected, and I came away a little disappointed. If the French
were to accept the British scheme of partial disarmament and
supervision, the Germans would be put on the defensive and
as time passed they would find it impossible to go on arming,
as they now are, due to the French attitude since 1920. The
French Ambassador indicated that he would communicate with
me in the event of any change of policy of his government
before my departure for Washington.

March 4, Sunday. Today is the anniversary of President
Roosevelt’s first day in office. Roosevelt came to office at a
moment when all social-economic relations of the so-called
western world were undergoing drastic reform. It was a de-

OCTOBER 12 , 1933 TO MARCH 4, I934 97

cisive moment in history, like the beginning of the American
Revolution in 1774. The individualism which Englishmen and
Americans forced into application in their countries between
1774 and 1846 and which the French adopted in their way has
everywhere been abused and defeated so that modern society
must now act through governments to subordinate individual
and corporate aggrandizement, and use social control so that
individual independence, equality and initiative may once more
prevail, as was planned, except as to religion, by Sam Adams
and Thomas Jefferson. Roosevelt sees this in spite of the fact
that his training at Groton and Harvard was faulty, even
vicious, and the wealth of his family burdensome. The task
which he must perform is quite as difficult as Jefferson’s effort
to abolish slavery.

He has started upon a series of experiments which have
already increased the national debt by several billion dollars,
andr some of the experiments are showing harmful effects. But
unlike other Presidents he recognizes errors and shifts his posi-
tion in order to carry his objective * the re-ordering of all social
and class relations If he succeeds, the ideal of Adams and
Jefferson will be applied in a society where slave-holders (big
business chiefs) no longer rule. But it will require modification
of his methods and eternal vigilance for decades to come.

In case Roosevelt does not succeed, or if he should die before
the greater part of his work is accepted, there will be a dicta-
torship, which would be ruinous to the United States. My hope
is that he carries on until 1941 when he would be able to name
his successor and secure prolonged application of his reforms,
thus showing Big Business and European autocrats that leader-
ship through democratic processes is still possible in a world of
mechanics and invention.

D

Ill

March 5, ig34 to July 8, 1334

March 5. Monday, A brief visit to the Dutch Minister re-
vealed evidence of a less belligerent attitude by the Japanese
towards Vladivostok than has hitherto appeared to be the case
He keeps in close touch with the Far East and with London
and watches the moves in the United States as few other
diplomats do.

At 6 30 I went^ upon request, to the German Foreign Office.
Von Neurath kept me waiting ten minutes which, in view of my
experience last October, I noticed and resented. When I entered
his office, the old Bismarck room, he was still engaged in read-
ing pages of a memorandum which he held in his hand as we
shook hands He showed a little perturbation and proceeded
at once to read me part of a telegram from the German Am-
bassador in Washington. The telegram gave information about
a forthcoming mock trial of Hitler in New York. The Mayor,
Fiorello La Guardia, Alfred E. Smith, Judge Samuel Seabury
and former American Secretary of State Bambridge Colby were
to indict the German Chancellor for returning Germany to
medievalism and for the barbarism of the methods he resorts
to. The Jews of New York City, organized labour, and the
American Legion, sponsors of the demonstration, had invited
the Ambassador, Hans Luther, to defend his chief or send some
lawyer to represent him or Hitler *

Von Neurath was nonplussed I had told him more than once
the Jewish policy of Hitler would bring further trouble if not
changed. He had pretended agreement. When he asked me to
cable Washington in the hope that the President or Secretary
Hull would intervene and stop the trial, I said that it could
be done only by violating fundamental American principles,
that nobody in the United States could suppress a private or
public meeting (although I knew the governments of cities and
states had suppressed meetings of socialists and pacifists during

MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934 99

the World War period) without violating the constitutions of
the nation and of the several states

He agreed that he knew these facts but hoped once more I
could do something to influence the New Yorkers. I said that if
Luther had cabled the news before publicity of the plan had
been given out, it might have been possible for Roosevelt to
dissuade the leaders from such a demonstration on the ground
of hurting relations between our two countries. Of course
Luther was not apt to know of such preparations. After a few
minutes more of anxious talk. Von Neurath gave me the memo-
randum he had been reading. I returned to the Embassy and
gave the document to Mr. Orme Wilson, secretary for political
matters, for a digest for consideration next morning

At 9.30 my wife and family and myself went to^the Hotel
Kaiserhof to see what Von Papen wished to do at his Bierabend,
There were hundreds of people, including many diplomats,
present. It was a demonstration on behalf of the German desire
for the restoration of the Saar Territory A number of reels of
film were shown, a lot of Saar wine was given away and some
talk indulged in. We came away at 1 1 30 convinced that all
the money spent, perhaps $1,000, had been wasted. It was all
such obvious propaganda that even Germans admitted the
futility of it. Another wasted evening ’

March 6 Tuesday, I called by request on Dr. Ritter to
discuss a second time the possibilities of a German commission
to Washington to discuss Schachf s scheme along with others
designed to increase German exports Ritter showed anxiety as
had Schacht. I urged that a commission of the best economists
in Germany be sent and that his people be prepared beforehand
for real concessions if they expected results. I know the United
States protectionist policy the last twelve years is the greatest
cause of trade difficulties. But I saw hope m the plan and
promised to advance it all I could.

Then I referred to the disagreeable event discussed with
Von Neurath yesterday and gave him a copy of a foolish Nazi
propaganda pamphlet sent out for foreign consumption some
ten days ago. It was a renewal of the 19^3 Imperial idea that
all Germans over the whole world owed a double allegiance.

100 MARCH 5, 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

I reminded him that such matters injured Germany, not the
countries where German emigrants lived. He agreed, but he
indicated that the officials of the Foreign Office did not have
power under the present regime to control such matters Von
Neurath had said as much the evening before. I am sorry for
these clearer-headed Germans who know world affairs fairly
well, who must work for their country and yet must submit
to the Hitler-Goering-Goebbels ignorance and autocracy.

March 7. Wednesday, At i o’clock I called by appointment
to see Chancellor Hitler. Hanfstaengl had arranged the inter-
view, and no one was supposed to know about it. As I went in.
Von Neurath met me, walked a few steps and entered the door
of a room adjoining the Chancellor’s. He was plainly a little
peeved, as he always accompanies those foreigners who see the
President or the Chancellor.

Hitler was very cordial. We sat down at a table, I with my
back towards the room where Von Neurath was supposed to be.
Unless there was some electric device concealed in the walls,
no one heard what was said.

For nearly an hour we reviewed problems of German- Ameri-
can relations. I asked Hitler if he had any message he wished
me to give the President when I reached Washington. He was
a little surprised, looked a moment at me and said : ^‘Let me
think it over and see you again.”

I then raised the subject of disagreeable and harmful propa-
ganda, as suggested by Secretary Hull, saying that unwise
propaganda in 1915-16 had done a great deal to bring the
United States into the World War. He pretended astonish-
ment and asked for more details. I did not give names as two
of the worst offenders are now officials of the Hitler regime :
Von Papen, his second in command, and Dr. Fuehr of the
Foreign Office. I then spoke of the pamphlets calling upon all
Germans in the United States, as elsewhere, to remember that
they are and must always remain Germans^ almost like the law
of 1913 claiming double allegiance for Germans. He at once
said with emotion: '"Ach, that is all Jewish lies; if I find out
who does that, I will put him out of the country, at once.”

I then explained the Jewish situation as existing in New York

lOI

MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

where the mock trial was to be held, but did not mention the
subject itself. He broke in frequently with such expressions as
"‘Damn the Jews” and insisted that if agitation continued in
the outside world, he would make an end of all Jews in Ger-
many. He spoke of having saved Germany from the Commu-
nists and said 59 per cent of the oflScials of Russia were Jews.
I privately questioned his figures but said: Sovietism is no
longer a menace He shook his head. I added that the Com-
munists had polled only a few votes in the United States in
1932. He declared loudly : “Happy country. Your people seem
to be so sensible in this respect.”

Finally, I raised the question of universities and academic
freedom and pressed the point that by university contacts and
free discussion of international relations we should solve many
of our difficulties. He agreed and in closing our talk he empha-
sized Roosevelt’s plan for better commerce.

As I left the room, I met the Minister of Education, Dr.
Rust, who had of late given out drastic orders against academic
freedom. We talked a minute or two and I stressed the subject
of intellectual freedom as important m relations between the
United States and Germany. He seemed never to have thought
seriously of that phase of the subject.

At 8 30 we had our second diplomatic dinner. Twenty-two
persons, including the Spanish Ambassador and Finance Min-
ister von Schwenn-Krosigk, were present. We had an agreeable
evening, but there was little chance for close acquaintance-
ship. I like the Spaniard very much but got only a few minutes
with him. Everybody went away about 11.30.

As I am writing my diary tonight after having seen Hitler,
I am inserting the general impressions I have received and
written about three of the chief Nazi leaders.

The Hitler regime is composed of three rather inexperienced
and very dogmatic persons, all of whom have been more or less
connected with murderous undertakings m the last eight or ten
years. It is a combination of men who represent different groups
of the present German majority, not an actual majority.

Hitler, now about forty-five, was an orphan at thirteen, went
through the World War without promotions or decorations, so
much worshipped here, and had some very curious experiences

102 MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

in Munich between 1919 and 1923. He is romantic-minded
and half-informed about great historical events and men in
Germany He was for a number of years a strict imitator of
Mussolini He rose to power by organizing elements in Ger-
many which were unemployed and indignant because Germany
had not won the World War. His devices are the devices which
men set up in ancient Rome, namely, the Hakenkreuz and the
personal salute.

He has definitely said on a number of occasions that a people
survives by fighting and dies as a consequence of peaceful
policies. His influence is and has been wholly belligerent. The
last six or eight months he has made many announcements of
peaceful purposes I think he is perfectly sincere and is willing
to negotiate with France, but only on his own terms. In the back
of his mind is the old German idea of dominating Europe
through warfare.

Hitler’s first lieutenant is Joseph Paul Goebbels, some ten
years younger, a miniature figure who was not engaged in the
war but who imbibed the bitterness against France and the rest
of the world during that long struggle. After the war he en-
gaged in organizing militant gangster groups in western Ger-
many and took every possible occasion to challenge the Social-
Democratic regime which submitted to the Treaty of Versailles.
He joined Hitler and made constant declarations that the Ger-
man people, once united, would dominate the world. While
Hitler is a fair orator as German oratory goes, Goebbels is a
past master. He makes a point of stirring animosities and
hatreds whenever there is opportunity, and he has combined
all the newspapers, radio, publications and art activities of Ger-
many into one vast propaganda machine. Through this agency
he is bent upon foicing all Germans into one solid Nazi
phalanx. He is far cleverer than Hitler, is much more bel-
ligerent, and, I am told, always refuses to have contacts with
foreigners.

The third member of this triumvirate is Hermann Goering,
about forty, who comes from southern Germany, and who was
involved, as was Goebbels, in the 1923 Munich beer-hall
putsch. He was a fugitive from justice for some months while
Hitler was in jail at Landsberg, and became intensely violent

MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934 IO3

against all democratic and socialist parties. The republican
government issued pardons for Hitler and Goermg who re-
warded this friendly act by renewing their gangster agitations.

While Goebbels uses something approaching a socialist ter-
minology, he mobilized his Storm Troop units against the
official Communist party, Goering represents a more clearly
aristocratic and Prussian Germanism. He enjoys great support
from the larger business interests. He had a marvellous experi-
ence during the war as an aviator and became as intensely war-
like as Goebbels and Hitler. He is the President of Prussia,
and has mobilized the old Prussian extremists (including the
Black Reichswehr) and militarists on behalf of the present
regime

A unique triumvirate * Hitler, less educated, more romantic,
with a semi-crimmal record; Goebbels and Goering, both
Doctors of Philosophy, both animated by intense class and foreign
hatreds and both willing to resort to the most ruthless methods.
They do not love each other, but in order to maintain their
power, they have to sit down together. I do not think there
has ever been in modern history such a unique group. There
was such a group in ancient Rome.

March lo, Saturday, Poultney Bigelow, son of John Bigelow,
an unusual man and friend of the Kaiser, who had just spent
three or four days at Doom, was to dine informally with us.
We asked Louis Ferdinand, grandson of the Kaiser who has
spent two or three years with Henry Ford in Detroit and who
is most spoken of as possible successor to the German throne,
to join us. Consul-General Messersmith, just appointed Min-
ister to Uruguay — and very happy about it — was also of the
party. Since Von Neurath had seemed a little distressed on
Tuesday, we also asked him ; he was guest of honour. There was
more frank and informing conversation than we have had in
months. Von Neurath and Bigelow embraced each other more
than once. The Prince was very interesting but discreet.

March 12, Monday. I spent today in closing up official matters
in the Chancery of the Embassy and seeing a few people who
wished to talk over some matters. The most interesting of

104 MARCH 5, 1934 TO JULY 8 , 1034

these was Stephen P Duggan of the International Institute
of Education of New York. He had spent ten days at Geneva
and two weeks in Paris, He is very anxious about international
relations and lays most of the blame for the critical situation
upon Hitler and to less extent upon Mussolini.

When I went up to bed, I found Fritz, our butler, packing
my suitcases. This is disagreeable to me, as I do not think it a
disgrace for a man to pack his own bags.

March /j. Thursday, All the family drove to Hamburg to
see me off for Washington. I had a sneaking feeling that the
company was unwilling for the ship to sail on the 13th (Wood-
row Wilson’s lucky day). So we sailed on March 14th to avoid
challenging luck I went to bed hopeful, but suspecting we
should have started on Friday and regretting that I had for-
gotten to take out an accident insurance policy.

March 22, Thursday. One of our American consuls is on
board, a man of fine qualities who wishes to leave Germany as
soon as possible and asks me to help his transfer while I am in
Washington. He deserves promotion and being a Jew he is
unhappy in Germany. His position is certainly difficult and he
is convinced the State Department decides promotions and
transfers according to favouritism.

This accords with a similar story of another consul in Czecho-
slovakia who is also returning on leave. The further I go in my
study of State Department policies, the more evidence there is
that a clique of kinspeople connected with certain rich families
are bent upon exploiting the Foreign Service for their set,
many of them Harvard graduates who are not even well in-
formed. Snobbery and personal gratification are the main
objects with them.

March 23, Friday. At Quarantine, Dr. Karl Werkmeister,
acting German Consul-General in New York, came to me with
a letter from Chancellor Hitler to President Roosevelt. Werk-
meister was merely finishing the interview I had with Hitler
on March 7th.

MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934 IO5

March 23. Friday Colonel House sent his handsome limou-
sine with a friend to meet me when the Manhattan docked and
take me quietly to his house. It was a lucky thing, for taxi
folk were on strike, and if I had gone to an hotel the newspaper
folk would have pestered me until my train for Washington
departed. House gave me valuable information about un-
friendly officials m the State Department with whom I would
have to deal.

March 24 Saturday. I went at ii o’clock to talk with Secre-
tary Hull. We had forty-five minutes together, reviewing re-
cent attitudes in Germany. He was a little puzzled about an
answer to be given by the President to Hitler’s code message —
publicity might follow. Hull repeated his recent conversations
with the German Ambassador, Luther, who showed no control
over his emotions and seemed to be a complete convert to Hit-
lerism, which he seemed not to be last summer. Hull said
Luther seemed entirely unable to understand freedom of the
press, free speech and freedom of religion as practised in the
United States. While I doubt the real freedom of press and
speech in my own country, the absolute denial of all these in
Germany makes Luther’s position understandable . he must be
a Hitlerite or be recalled.

March 30. Friday. For a week, I have been working in the
State Department. On Sunday, March 25, I had dinner with
Daniel Roper and members of his family. Monday I was again
busy visiting State Department officials like Walton Moore
and Wilbur J Carr, of the personnel division. Tuesday I had
dinner, after a busy day, with Jouett Shouse and his wife and
guests : Desha Brecldnridge and Lowell Mellett, of the Scripps-
Howard press syndicate. Conversation was frank and open.

In the afternoon I attended a conference of personnel
officers in the State Department: Moore, Carr, Sumner Welles
(of doubtful Cuban fame), Hugh Wilson and others were
present. I reported that American diplomacy had a new role
to play The Louis XIV and Victoria style and times had
passed. The nations of the world were bankrupt, including our
own. It was time to cease grand style performances. I de-
D 2

I 06 MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

scribed Belgian, Italian and French dinners of state in Berlin
There was some amusement

I then talked of Ameiican staff officials who shipped furni-
ture enough for twenty-room houses at the cost of $35000,
with only two persons in the family! An assistant to me in
Berlin had a chauffeur, a porter, a butler, a valet, two books
and two maids. All for two persons 1 While these people paid
all these extraordinary expenses, the government paid the
$3,000 freight and then found that such a person was not even
well qualified for best service. I urged that men should not
be allowed to spend more than their salaries : $4,000 to $17,500
a year. Besides, I urged the necessity of having ambassadors
and assistants who knew the history and traditions of the coun-
tries to which they were sent, men who think of their own
country’s interests, not so much about a different suit of clothes
each day or sitting up at gay but silly dinners and shows every
night until i o’clock. Sumner Welles winced a little the owner
of a mansion in Washington which outshines the White House
in some respects and is about as large.

There was much talk and some embarrassment, but general
agreement that the time had come for a new kind of service.
I was not fooled, however, after two hours of pretended agree-
ment.

Thursday I had luncheon at the Library of Congress.
Librarian Herbert Putnam was in fine humour. After some two
hours of work in the stacks, I was called from New York by
James McDonald who was about to leave for Europe in another
effort to solve the German Jewish problem.

I drove away today to my farm near Round Hill. Later, I
drove three miles south on a sandy-clay road to engage Mason
Peyton to help me open some choked water pipes On my way
back, following another road, recently repaired, I was stalled
in the mud and the car would not move forward or backward.
It was getting dark. Waiting a little and wondering what to do,
having no chains, I saw a sturdy-looking farm worker coming
down the road. He willingly lent a hand and put some broad
boards, which he found nearby, under the rear wheels. But the
car could not be started, A few minutes later another farmer
came along the road Both lent willing hands. After fifteen

MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934 IO7

minutes of muddy work, I was able to pull out. Neither of the
men would accept any pay for their work. How unlike
Europe !

April ig. Thursday, In Chicago I lunched with Leo Wormser
and Max Epstein to talk over the Jewish problem in Germany.
Wormser and Epstein explained how they and their friends had
calmed their fellows and prevented any violent demonstrations
m Chicago as planned James Gerard had not spoken. But the
Chicago Jews were indignant and unwilling to ease off their
boycott. I told them that a month ago the Chancellor of Ger-
many had ordered the closing of Columbia House, Berlin’s
worst prison, and the re-establishing of a warrant system in
making arrests, and added my own opinion on how the drift
seemed to be going.

April 20, Friday, At a library meeting of the University of
Chicago, Carl Sandburg, author of a definitive life of Abraham
Lincoln, and Lloyd Lewis, author of a popular biography
of General William T. Sherman, and I made short speeches
tonight about the Barton collection of Lincolniana. It had also
been arranged that Governor Henry Horner of Illinois be
present — only I knew Horner would not be there because I had
more than once rebuked him in 1933 for not using his guber-
natorial power to rid Chicago of its terrible racketeering mayor-
alty. With this in the background, I knew Governor Horner
would allow Sandburg and myself to function alone as far as
he was concerned.

The audience was large and great interest was shown in the
frankest discussion of Lincoln I have ever heard in Chicago,
Lincoln interpreted as a great human soul in high position igno-
rant at times of the intrigues behind his back. All of us gave
Lincoln full credit for his one great objective : a union of demo-
cratic states such as Jefferson had dreamed of and worked for.
All of us raised questions concerning The wisdom of certain
crucial decisions * allowing war instead of compromise in 1861 ;
granting economic control to industrialists and financiers, per-
haps unavoidably once war was on. Even these points obtained
a sympathetic hearing.

I 08 MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

April SI. Saturday. I slept late, had lunch with university
co-workers and came back m time to speak to the social science
faculty and students This speech was the mam object of my
visit to the university. For an hour I analyzed the status of the
social sciences . history, economics, political science, sociology.
My major points were . history should be required of all special-
ists in these fields and made a real discipline as well as a philo-
sophical background ; two languages, besides one’s own,
must be required of all candidates for the doctorate and these
made disciplines too; the faculties must be self-governing and
participate in university control. There were some 400 people
present and I think there were no dissenting voices. All the
older professors as well as the graduate students indicated unity
of feeling and some excitement, due, as I thought, to Hutchins’
recent interventions in departmental affairs without allowing
traditional self-government Prof. A C McLaughlin, Schmitt
and all my former friends and even opponents indicated their
warm support. President Hutchins was absent as he had been
on the evening of the 20th.

April S3. Monday. I went to luncheon afoot today to Mrs.
Kellogg Fairbank, on North State Street, where I was offered
the usual cocktail fashionable folk in the United States must
drink or be counted out of style. After the cocktail ceremony,
whieh some of the guests seemed really to enjoy, we sat down
to a dehghtful luncheon where everybody but myself con-
demned the New Deal, Roosevelt and all his Cabinet, especially
Ickes, Wallace and the Brain Trusters I asked for a counter
policy and received this for comment : we must go back to the
gold standard, free banking and free industry This seemed to
me no real policy at all, those policies having failed everywhere,
nowhere worse than in Chicago. German problems were dis-
cussed rather more freely than I felt had been wise, but all
agreed the conversation was “off the record.”

April sg Sunday. I drove today to Fuquay Springs where
my father, eighty-seven years old next November, lives in a
quiet little cottage. We talked for two hours about old family
matters and little about Berlin. Later, I drove out to Mr.

MARCH 5, 1934 TO JULY 8 , 1934 IO 9

Daniels’ magnificent place, too elaborate for his small fortune
and too expensive for his children when he passes away, where
I discussed some of the State Department problems and Hull’s
liberal policy.

May Wednesday, After having set everybody to his task
about the farm and getting an early dinner, I drove to Wash-
ington again today. I stopped at the Cosmos Club and at 8
o’clock went to the Mayflower Hotel where the Ropers were
giving a formal dinner to fifty-two people in the accepted diplo-
matic style. Many eminent men in the present regime were
present, including Mr. and Mrs. Josephus Daniels, guests of
honour, Jesse Jones of the Federal Reconstruction Finance Cor-
poration, William Phillips of the State Department and a score
of senators and representatives As usual no informational talk
was indulged m, save perhaps what Representative Sol Bloom
of New York revealed of his attraction for Mussolini and the
pro-Roosevelt attitude of his Republican constituents who con-
demned him for his vote against the President’s bonus bill veto.

May 3, Thursday. I visited Secretary Hull, Secretary Dern
and Secretary Swanson during the morning and at 12.30 saw
the President for a farewell and also to invite him to speak
before the annual meeting of the American Historical Associa-
tion next December in Washington, D. C., where I am to pre-
side and read the annual address. Roosevelt accepted, saying
that he had addressed the Association at its meeting in Charles-
ton some twenty years ago. When we finished this subject there
was some talk about a possible American boycott of any nation
which crossed its own borders m a warlike move into another
sovereign nation and the meaning of the tariff powers then
being discussed in the Senate.

The President asked me to give unofficially his greetings to
Hitler when I saw him, but to be sure to imply no political
approval of his policies. With best wishes for his success I bade
the President farewell, and returned to my farm.

May 6. Sunday. This was a beautiful day. The budding trees
and the apple blooms were most appealing, especially since I

no

MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

must leave. The herd of cows came m and grazed an hour on
the lawn and took off the surplus of blue grass.

May 7. Monday, At 9 o’clock Flave Clark and I drove away
over the mountains via Charlestown, West Virginia, to Fred-
erick, Maryland, where I bought a few articles to take to Ber-
lin. We drove on to Gettysburg where I had lunch in a neat
restaurant whose manager would not allow Flave, a Negro man
of attractive bearing, to think of such a thing as eating in the
main room. He must enter the kitchen through the rear door
exactly as would be required in Charleston or Atlanta. Flave
made no complaint and we drove on towards Philadelphia where
I was to have a conference with my old friend Conyers Read.

May 8 , Tuesday, I left Philadelphia today for New York,
after sending Flave Clark back to Virginia with my car. At i
o’clock, I went to che Century Club where Herbert S. Houston,
who had made the arrangements a month before, gathered
together around a huge table about twenty foremost editors
and newspaper executives in the city for luncheon. The
TimeSy the Herald Tribune^ the Forum^ the Literary Digest were
represented, as well as my former students W. L Chenery,
editor of Collier^ s^ and Edwin L. James, the Times^ European
specialist. The discussion ran for an hour and a half. I never
met with more open and frank support on all the leading
problems which I ventured to touch upon. Even the editor
of Time^ the weekly which has treated me unfairly once or
twice, was cordial and sympathetic. Germany seemed pro-
foundly important to them all.

There was unanimous opinion that President Roosevelt still
had the overwhelming support of the masses in all sections of
the country. The first returns of the Digest poll, its editor said,
showed overwhelming enthusiasm in spite of all newspaper
criticism. The State Department had advised me to accept
Houston’s invitation a month before, that is, William Phillips
had ; and I was sure the conference was a good thing from every
point of view since I was about to leave. I was disappointed
that my friend John Finley of the Times could not have been
present.

Ill

MARCH 5, 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

At dinner tonight at Colonel House’s, soon after we sat down
to the table Mrs. House engaged my attention closely about
persons and interests more social than otherwise. When the
talk had gone on for a good while, Colonel House broke in :
‘‘My dear, you must desist. There are other more important
subjects we must discuss!” Mrs House had forgotten herself
a little ; but the Colonel also forgot himself a little. I was calm
and showed no signs of observing the incident.

Later we went into the sitting-room of their very handsome
but not elaborate apartment. In fifteen minutes the Colonel
asked me into his study where he had pictures of Wilson and
Franklin Roosevelt, with other eminent American leaders. We
sat together on the sofa and he showed me letters from promi-
nent leaders, including a significant one from the President. We
talked intimately about the groups in the Cabinet and a recent
visit of Secretary Hull who had reported that Raymond Moley
was trying again to worm his way into government circles
in Washington which Hull resented and House thought
dangerous

This reminded me of the pressing invitation I had had from
Gerard Swope to take luncheon or breakfast with him, Herbert
Bayard Swope, Owen D. Young and Raymond Moley while I
was in the city. This had been sent to me in Virginia two weeks
or more before. Gerard Swope is head of the General Electric
Company; Herbert figured m a doubtful capacity at the
London Economic Conference; and Owen Young I have never
regarded with any enthusiasm. I had declined the invitation
mainly because of the feeling that some sort of game was in
mind. I distrust every one of the four. Perhaps I should have
accepted their invitations to learn what was behind their
interest, but personal distrust got the better of me. I would not
sit down to lunch with a Morgan — except possibly to learn
something of his motives and attitudes.

May g. Wednesday, This is the day of my departure. Judge
Julian Mack of the Federal Circuit Court in New York came
to see me. He talked half an hour about the Jewish problem in
Germany. I reported to him Hitler’s order of March ii or 12
closing Columbia House, the place where Jews and others had

II 2 MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

been tortured, and announcing that warrants must be proved
before anyone could be detained more than twenty-four hours
on any charge. He thought these good omens, as I had re-
ported them in Chicago.

He asked if I thought the boycott in the United States ought
to be eased up. I said : Yes, if you think Hitler is easing down.
Do it only tentatively, then more positively if the Germans
abandon their extreme ruthlessness. He did not say he would
urge it but did indicate that he would take up the problem

The Washington sailed at 12 o’clock and I went to bed.

May ly, Thursday, I arrived in Berlin at 1030 p.m. My
family and all of the staff were at the train to meet me. I was
delighted to be home but the tense atmosphere was revealed
at once.

May 18, Friday I had a plain, confidential talk this morn-
ing with Messersmith who is going to Austria as Minister We
canvassed the subjects of Jews m Austria, the danger of pub-
licity, the wisdom of restraining one’s propensity for large social
shows, and especially the value of keeping m close, confidential
relations with our Berlin Embassy. He agreed on all points. He
submitted a copy of his survey of the Pans Embassy made at
the request of Secretary Hull. The report showed a score of
useless employees there and showed how to dispense with them
While I have felt all along that we have too many on our staff
and several only semi-competent ones, I have not been able to
bring about more than one transfer, that of a man who had
engaged in embarrassing behaviour with German women.

May 24, Thursday, I had lunch at a small restaurant on
Unter den Linden today with Dieckhoff. He is a liberal
German, a university Ph D. who had lived for several years in
Washington and the last few years been what amounts to
Assistant Secretary of State. I reminded him of the assurances
before I left on March 14 that the German Government was
easing up on the Jewish atrocities and cited his personal
announcement at the German Press Club luncheon, on March
12, that no man could thereafter be held in restraint more than

MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934 II3

twenty-four hours without a warrant duly approved by a local
judge I also reminded him of a recent order closing the
Columbia House.

He agreed at once that the Chancellor had made these moves
in the interest of better relations with the United States. I then
told him what I had done in the interest of mutual understand-
ing with the Jews, and what Colonel House had helped me to
do. I added that Goebbels’ speech of May 12 had upset every-
thing I had done and that Americans would consider me as
imposed upon, perhaps naive

Dieckhoff then revealed his whole attitude of opposition to
Goebbels and his expectation that Hitler would be overthrown
soon He gave what he considered good evidence that the
Germans would not much longer endure the system under which
they were drilled everlastingly and semi-starved. He could
hardly have said more if he had been in England or m the
United States. It was understood that all we said was to be
confidential, except that I might give his explanation to my
friends at home : Hull, House and other officials.

He added that a boycott against the Jews had been planned
here for the last week in March but that the Foreign Office,
Schacht and Schmitt had dissuaded Hitler, so that his consent
had not been given. Goebbels’ attitude had embarrassed Hitler
though the Chancellor had not changed his policy It was
simply the economic situation in March and April which made
him uneasy. But Dieckhoff added: “I fear if the American
Jews ceased their boycott and agitation, we might not get out of
this situation,” t.e , an overthrow might not be possible. I felt
the deep concern of a high official who could thus risk his life in
criticism of the existing regime. We parted rather sadly, walk-
ing slowly towards the Wilhelmstrasse where I was sure he
would relate what I had said of Roosevelt’s attitude and my
embarrassed position at home. After two hours of routine work
in the office, I went for a walk around the Tiergarten.

May 28 Monday. The last few days have been occupied with
routine work. At 12 30 I went to the Foreign Office. Von Neu-
rath kept me waiting ten minutes, a delegation coming out of
the private office as I went in. From 12.40 to i 15 I talked

II 4 MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

with Von Neurath who was more cordial and more interested
in understanding my viewpoints than ever before since my
arrival in Berlin in July, 1933

He asked about my vacation at home and about the United
States but I focused conversation on the real topic by asking
what he thought of Mussolini’s speech before the so-called
Italian Parliament last Saturday, the great dictator having de-
clared in a formal way that war was as natural and necessary
as child-bearing to women and that the scale of living in Italy
must be lowered in order to maintain military and naval
armaments against Italy’s rivals.

Von Neurath said * “That is like Mussolini ; there are some
fools in Germany who talk that way also ; but there is no sub-
stantial element of the German people who want war.” This
was repeating what Dieckhoff had said on Thursday.

Von Neurath dwelt some time on the unfortunate attitude of
France. “If they would only meet us part way, we would gladly
resume negotiations at Geneva I think that it would be one of
the greatest things in the world if France would yield ”

I then asked him what he thought of Roosevelt’s declaration
about armaments. He congratulated the United States on such
leadership but added: “You cai^not control the shipment of
arms even if you enact strict regulations ” I described stock
declines when Roosevelt’s speech was published, particularly
the decline of DuPont armaments stocks. He answered:
“Good, but even if your Congress goes on with the investigation
and European states agree to lay embargoes, there will still
be shipments of arms in one form or another.”

After a few words more I started to get up He put his hand
on my arm : “Do not go ; what do you think of the Jewish prob-
lem?” It was a part of my purpose to give him a chance to ex-
plain the German change of policy after the promises of March
12 and the speeches made while I was in the United States.

I reviewed my position when I left Germany and the check-
ing of the mock trial planned in Chicago for mid-April, and
closed my story with the statement that my position was embar-
rassing. It might even be said, I told him, that I was naive in
assuming Germans to be sincere in their assurances. I told him
Roosevelt had thanked me for checking the Chicago agitation.

MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934 II5

I said Goebbels’ speech as reported to me on the Washington
was immediately printed all over the United States on May 12
and that it had reopened the anti-Nazi agitation.

He was not a little perturbed. He said the German Govern-
ment had meant what it said when I left, but that Streicher of
Nurnberg had broken all bounds and started persecutions on
his own authority and that to the astonishment of all, Goebbels
had joined Streicher and made the terrible blunder of May
12. He added that he, Schacht and Schmitt had gone to
Goebbels and protested. He added that even the Chancellor
was uncomfortable

I repeated part of what I had said to Hitler about the way
Americans are trying to control profiteering by great financial
interests. He said he was glad to learn that I had informed Hit-
ler, but I added that the Chancellor had not agreed with me.
Von Neurath was silent for a moment after my remarks. It was
plain that he was entirely of my way of thinking. He begged
me to say to Washington that the outbreak was entirely con-
trary to the German Government’s purpose, but he did not
commit himself on Hitler. He did say that Goering had become
a moderate on the Jewish problem.

Then he turned to commercial relations, the decline of
German gold reserves to only 4 per cent of German paper
money “What shall we do?” It is a terrible situation. He
added: “It is the Jewish boycott, the tariff barriers of all
countries and our inability to purchase cotton and rubber or to
sell anything abroad,” He was very uneasy but did not say
revolution was in waiting.

He said he agreed entirely with the American Transfer Con-
ference delegates, Laird Bell and others, that “Germany ought
to pay half the interest due” — a liberal concession by the Ameri-
can bondholders — “but the French won’t yield an inch. They
must have their 6 per cent and we have no gold or exchange
at all ” I sympathized with him in this as in most of what he

said. There was no sort ofboasting or pride in his attitude. He
dreaded the effect of asking a six-month moratorium. It would
have the same kind of influence in the United States that the
boycott has had, to close the markets still more firmly.

He referred to possible negotiations in Washington under

Il6 MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

Roosevelt’s tariff powers. “Can anything be done?” I said: Yes,
if Germany is willing to make real trade concessions The Presi-
dent had not authorized me to make any suggestions on this
subject. But I was so sure of the Washington attitude that I
added : If you send a first-rate commission, I think a good deal
can be done ; but do not send persons whose reputations would
arouse opposition. You know what the press could do in such
cases. My idea was to avoid Dr. Schacht being sent, much as
he wishes to go. He would be very unwelcome to Hull and
Roosevelt.

June I. Friday. I had a short interview this mormng with
Von Neurath about German violations of a treaty with the
United States. The Foreign Minister took my written protest
with discomfort and promised to give an answer in a day or
two. I said that Germany must not violate its treaties if she
ever wishes to stand well with public opimon in the United
States. He asked me : “What can we do?” Germany had no ex-
ports to the United States and only promises of exports to Den-
mark and other countries. I had proof of serious violations due
to heavy imports of lard from Hungary and a great decline of
imports from Chicago meat-packers. He asked for a document
or memorandum from my hand. I said that I could not give
this to him. As I came away I felt sorry for the Secretary who
always has to defend, before me, the conduct which he wholly
disapproves. He and Secretary Hull are of the same school of
economic and international thought.

We went to Dr Schmitt’s to lunch He is a man of the same
attitudes as Von Neurath. His speeches, always printed rather
freely m German papers, reveal an independence of mind in his
field We sat around a table on his beautiful lawn, White and
Flack of our staff with us After the meal was fimshed Schnutt
pulled me aside, walked round and round his lawn and talked
for an hour about Germany’s calamitous situation; a great
and threatening drought, no exports to the outside world,
intense hostility in the United States and England on account
of Hitler’s treatment of the Jews, Protestants and Catholics
How can the Germans negotiate a new treaty with the United
States with such tremendous hostility? I listened and talked as

MARCH 5, 1934 TO JULY 8, I934 II7

much as I could during pauses. I have never seen a German
statesman so much distressed, and I was quite sympathetic when
he again and again referred to the folly of Hitler’s policy.

I intimated that if a commission were sent to Washington,
Schmitt himself might be more successful than other German
officials who had become very unpopular in Washington and
New York because of their actions in regard to debts due to
American creditors. He said he could not leave very well, but
would go if there were a prospect of success. He showed interest
enough to ask me to speak to Von Neurath about his possible
appointment — another of those suggestions that liberal German
officials have made from time to time.

June 2 Saturday. Germany looks dry for the first time ; trees
and fields are yellow. The papers are full of accounts of the
drought in Bavaria and in the United States as well.

After a busy day we drove to Cecilienhof, the home of the
German Crown Prince, a beautiful park-like residence and
grounds near Potsdam. We were asked to sit down with the
Crown Princess and take tea. She is the sister of the Queen of
Denmark and a most sensible and attractive woman, the un-
happy wife of the dissipated eldest son of the Kaiser, now in
exile m Holland.

She was most agreeable. We sat at her table some twenty
minutes and then asked to be excused, in order not to deprive
others of being received at the table. The British Ambassador,
just returned from England, and his wife were with us at the
table for a time. We then walked about a little, met and talked
with the other members of the family and came away. It was
a rather sad reminiscent experience, as I recalled all the time
the great Hohenzollern days of late nineteenth and early
twentieth century history.

June 4. Monday. Yesterday I received a letter from Colonel
House saying an agent or friend of Hitler had called on him
about May 20 and asked him to go to Germany and see Hitler
about the solution of the Jewish problem House declined. A
day later one of the foremost Jews in the United States, Samuel
Untermyer, had visited House and although he agreed to no

Il8 MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

definite policy, he suggested to House that I undertake nego-
tiations, entirely personal, looking towards a moderation of
Hitler’s attitude. If that succeeded, both House and Unter-
myer were sure the Jews in the United States would ease up
their boycott The cause of this move was the growing anti-
Semitism m the United States of which Judge Julian Mack
spoke on May 9 in New York It has provoked opposition even
to Roosevelt because of his few Jewish appointments.

This morning I saw Von Neurath alone in his house and
read him House’s letter and suggested that he see Hitler and
sound him out. He said he would do so as soon as the Chan-
cellor was home again, also that Dr. Schacht and Dr. Schmitt
would join him. He suggested that the restraining of Streicher,
the violent Nurnberger who keeps the agitation going, and
Goebbels was the first move. I suggested that some Nazi chief
make a speech calling for moderation. If this could be done, I
would wire House I drove back to the office ; I had taken only
seven minutes of Von Neurath’s time.

Junes. Tuesday. The French Ambassador came and reported
that he had word from Geneva about my interview with Von
Neurath on May 28 to the effect that I thought the Germans
might yield to the Geneva demand that they negotiate a dis-
armament agreement again. I repeated what I thought about
world folly at the present moment and my guess that Germany
would yield if France made any real concession, even a small
once. He was somewhat of my mind. I wonder if Norman Davis
repeated the contents of my confidential letter of May 29 to him.

June 6 . Wednesday. I drove at noon to the French Ambassa-
dor’s to ascertain whether he had further news from Geneva.
He had not, but was going to see Von Neurath about possible
German concessions if France yielded anything. He would in-
form me if he obtained any real information. About 6 o’clock
young Armand Berard, the Ambassador’s confidential secretary,
came to report no new moves in the Geneva negotiations. Young
Berard said 'There is great excitement in Paris about the
imminence of war.” I said : I do not see how Germany can make
war, bankrupt as she is.

MARCH 5, 1934 TO JULY 8, I934 II9

June 7. Thursday Three bankers, led by Banta, came to learn
what they could from me. They were very uneasy. One criti-
cized Roosevelt rather severely until I intimated that the op-
position leaders must have a positive plan. He then charged
Roosevelt with loading himself up with Jews, and added:
“There is going to be rioting in New York. Sam Untermyer is
apt to be attacked.”

June 8 . Friday. Another nervous, uneasy New York banker
came in today. When he drifted into criticism of the President,
I spoke strongly in favour of Stock Exchange regulations soon
to go into effect. He fell in with that and came slowly to agree
that Roosevelt was the only leader with any real promise. He
was very troubled lest something happen here.

At Ernst Hanfstaengl’s tea, the French Ambassador again
raised the Geneva problem He said the prospect is better there
and that I was too pessimistic about the German situation being
so critical as to compel Germans to yield considerably on the
armament problem.

A German Foreign Office official. Dr. Davidson, urged nego-
tiations in Washington about trade. I frankly said I had hoped
to see a commission begin work, that it was time for tariff re-
adjustment. He reported that Von Neurath had said I favoured
such a move at an early date and that Ambassador Luther had
talked an hour with Hull on Wednesday, the day I sent my
telegram about the German failure to understand the interna-
tional incidents they allow to occur almost daily.

June 10. Sunday. We drove out to the former Imperial hunt-
ing lodge where Hermann Goering has set up a Prussian state
animal park and where he has a sort of week-end retreat. We
arrived late on account of some hitch in the car machinery (a
new Buick my wife finally bought m place of the wrecked
Chevrolet which protocol people thought ridiculously simple
for an Ambassador) and found most of the diplomatic folk
standing in a forest around a speaker who welcomed us.

Then Goering spoke. He wore a medieval hunter’s uniform.
He is a big, fat, good-humoured man who loves display above
everything. While he spoke three photographers with elaborate

120 MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

outfits took pictures which he was particularly pleased to permit
He next led us about the woods and showed us bisons and tiny
wild horses He mounted an old-time carnage drawn by two
horses and dnven by a peasant. Madame Cerruti, wife of the
Ambassador firom Italy and very proud of display, took her
place on the nght of Goering. All the rest of us followed in
peasant two-seat carriages dnving slowly about the forests
where occasionally one saw a deer or an eagle.

When the journey was over, each of us gave his driver a mark
or two and then took to our cars which carried us to Goering’s
hunting lodge on the shore of a beautiful lake. Goering had hur-
ried off ahead of us and when we arrived he met us in a wonder-
ful new white summer garb and showed us through his new
log house, an elaborate reproduction of a medieval country
gentleman’s house, if there were gentlemen m that day. All of us
scattered about the place and drank tea, coffee or beer accord-
ing to our taste. Vice Chancellor von Papen sat at the head of
the table on my left. Sir Eric Phipps, Bntish Ambassador, sat
across the table; the French Ambassador was on my right two
persons away The conversation had no value, unless perchance
a few remarks about Admiral Spindler’s new book on the Ger-
man navy in the World War were worthwhile. I seemed to stop
that discussion when I said : If peoples knew the truth of history
there would never be another great war. Somehow Sir Eric and
Frangois-Poncet laughed a good deal, but said nothmg. After a
considerable pause, we turned to other and less risky subjects.

At 6 o’clock Goering took us about the premises and dis-
played his vanity at every turn, often causing has guests to glance
amusedly at each other. We were led to another lovely lake
shore and shown a tomb, with deep foundations of stone front-
ing the water, the most elaborate structure of its kind I ever
saw. It is the burial place of Goering’s former wife whose re-
mains had been brought from Sweden where the people indi-
cated their dislike of Nazi Germany by dishonouring the grave.
Goering boasted of this marvellous tomb of his first wife where
he said his remains would one day be laid. For half an hour
this went on Sir Enc and I, weary of the curious display and
already due in Berlin fifty miles away, went to him to say fare-
well. Lady Cerruti saw our move and she arose quickly so as

MARCH 5, 1934 TO JULY 8 , 1934 I2I

not to allow anybody to trespass upon her right to lead on every
possible occasion.

June 13, Wednesday, I went to a tea at Goering’s beautiful
mansion in the city. Most of the diplomatic corps were present.
Schmitt, a very able member of the Cabinet whose work forces
him to threaten resignation now and then, sided me off for a
discussion once more of possible trade negotiations between
Germany and the United States. He was excited and distressed
by the announcement then just maturing that Germany would
pay none of her debt after July i. He also knew Secretary
Hull had informed Ambassador Luther on June 6 that no
trade negotiations could be undertaken for some time yet.

I told him Hull had complained of German treaty violations
and their failure to treat American creditors justly. He pre-
tended not to know of Germany’s conduct. For some time we
talked frankly about the blunders that seemed to have defeated
the one thing Germany had hoped for : freer access to American
markets We agreed about the dangers of Hitler’s fanciful eco-
nomic autarchy. He said the Chancellor would force his system
upon Germany in defiance of the Amencan attitude. I told him
the attitude was due to three things : the unwise treatment of
Jews here which had caused a vast boycott, the secret violation
by Germans of the treaty which gave Americans certain trade
concessions, and the refusal of Foreign Office officials to explain
such acts or even answer my earnest official requests for explana-
tion of such conduct. I said things like this cause great public
dislike on the other side, and in the face of your announcement
of inability to pay, we have learned recently of the German pur-
chase of a hundred airplanes from American manufacturers per
month. This is so contradictory ! The Party people were looking
too much at us and we parted. He showed much anxiety:

June 14, Thursday, There is much talk in the press about a
spectacular meeting of Hitler and Mussolini in Venice today
and tomorrow. I can see no possible objective except the en-
couragement of German and Italian peoples who are greatly
concerned about the economic failure of their Fascist systems.
Goering laughed a little sarcastically when I said yesterday :

122 MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

You did not go to Venice, I see. It is commonly said here that
he expects to be the beneficiary of a putsch managed by the
Reichswehr, and it may happen any time. I see no way it could
succeed.

June 15 Friday. Von Ribbentrop, Hitler’s contact man for
international problems, came to see me. He talked a little about
the Venice meeting but said nothing. He then broached the sub-
ject of disarmament, concluding by saying Hitler would return
to the League if France would only make some small conces-
sion. I had talked with Frangois-Poncet to this end before he
went away to Paris on June 13. Now the Chancellor’s agent re-
peated my point : a little concession from France and then a re-
newal of the disarmament question. Was he sounding me out?
I then repeated what I had said to Schmitt at Goering’s tea
party. Von Ribbentrop pretended to be surprised and showed
a good deal of concern as he went away.

After a walk in the Tiergarten, I sat down to lunch with
a group of American visitors to Berlin: Former Minister to
Sweden Moorhead and his wife, convinced capitalists who do
not know what was the cause of American disaster in 1929 ; Dr
and Mrs. Mapels of Wilmington, Delaware; and Professor and
Mrs. T. V. Smith of the philosophy faculty at the University
of Chicago. It was an interesting group of people differing
widely on every possible subject, the Moorheads the most com-
placent and least informed, in spite of their great wealth and
in spite of wide experience.

Moorhead said: ‘'Ten per cent of any people make the
money, lead in every phase of life and should have unmolested
control of public affairs.” That certainly was Hoover’s idea and
Moorhead boasted of his relations with the discredited ex-
President. How different the views of Smith who teaches
philosophy in Chicago ! He is a near-Socialist, but not oblivious
of man’s long and cantankerous record in all ages.

June 16. Saturday. I sent a personal telegram yesterday to
Secretary Hull asking him to nominate R. D. W. Connor of
North Carolina to the President for appointment to a position
now open in Washington : National Archivist. Connoi has the

MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934 123

support of all the executive committee of the American His-
torical Association Today I wired the gist of Schmitt’s and
Ribbentrop’s discussions with me, and gave a brief summary of
German blunders as they appear to me.

June 77. Sunday I received a cable from Hull saying I must
talk personally with the Foreign Office tomorrow, June i8, as
he is giving out a press statement about Germany’s declared
moratorium and failure to keep treaties. He made it plain that
he understands the complex situation and perhaps recognizes
American blunders in previous years — our tariff walls now
imitated here, and pretended isolation. So he makes no formal
protest.

What more can I say than I have said a score of times?
Germany is in a terrible plight and for once she recognizes war
is no remedy, yet she talks war all the time. Hitler is back from
the Venetian show where he rivalled Mussolini in vain pomp
and parade, agreeing to nothing. Tomorrow wjll be a good day
to talk to Von Neurath, if he is available.

June 18 Monday At 5 30 I saw Voii Bulow and read him a
striking passage of Hull’s telegram. Von Bulow at once de-
clared . ‘‘There is no discrimination in the German proclama-
tion of a moratorium on payment of debts, nor is there dis-
crimination in possible arrangements between Germany and
Holland, and Germany and Switzerland.”

My reply was that the American people did not view the sub-
ject as the German Government does. Perhaps there is no dis-
crimination in the payment to France of 6 per cent and to
Americans of 4 per cent, on bonds, because American loans
were made under different contracts and American representa-
tives had agreed to a reduction of interest rate in the recent
Transfer Conference. The French had not agreed to reduction,
their government having made the contract with the Germans.
But these narrow distinctions are not appreciated by the
hundreds of thousands of American creditors.

Moreover, there have been so many other things: persecu-
tion of Jews, Nazi propaganda in the United States at such high
cost to Germans, and the recent purchase of hundreds of air-

124 MARCH 5, 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

craft for war purposes. What Germans call financial prostration
seems not to be as actual or imminent as they make out. Ameri-
cans feel that prior obligations on bonds are being neglected
without sufficient justification. Von Bulow was not quite at ease.
He understands full well the drift of opinion in the United
States and is in reality not satisfied with the policy of his own
government, though he did not say so.

On the general commercial dilemma we are agreed. Nations
cannot set up hard and fast barriers and then expect payment
of international debts. He complained that the United States
had not allowed commercial negotiations to begin in April, as I
had in fact hoped while in Washington. I said the outbreak of
fresh Jewish atrocities in Germany and public addresses of high
officials, like the one of Goebbels on May 12, had produced re-
actions in the United States which had made Congressional
consent more difficult. He assented. I reminded him that since
June I, I had been asking for explanations and promises which
I might wire to Washington in the hope of easing off the
excitement. He said Dr. Schacht and Dr. Darre, of the Agri-
culture Ministry, always delayed such explanations and the
Foreign Office could do flothing.

As I was about to go, I asked about the Venice conference.
He said promptly. ‘‘We declined the Far East pact with Russia
and Poland which Litvinov urged because we are not armed and
could not participate on equal and safe terms. It involved
Germans in a guarantee of the Baltic states’ safety, and also
Czechoslovakia’s, against aggression of any kind.” It was plain
that Hitler is not willing to allow these states with German
minorities to maintain their independence.

Von Bulow added, “We wish to get a conference of the
greater powers which signed the Kellogg pact to meet and agree
to a peace pact including Germany, France, England, Italy and
the United States.” I agree that such a substitute for the Lit-
vinov “eastern Locarno pact” might be advisable. This sup-
ported the idea Von Ribbentrop had suggested on Friday.
Perhaps the Germans recognize the terrible risks of their posi-
tion and are sincere m their representations to Italy and
France Frangois-Poncet is still in Paris and perhaps is doing
more there than he could do here. I left Von Bulow after

MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934 I25

forty minutes talk, not wholly convinced of any single
thing.

June ig. Tuesday. Goering today carried his wife’s remains
to the tomb he had shown us a week before I had thought that
the poor woman’s remains were already under the pile of
Swedish marble he had shown me. Not so ; there was a second
display with Hitler present, also many high officials of the
Foreign Office and others. There v/as an attack upon the car
of Goering’s chief lieutenant, according to press stories, but no
one was seriously injured. About the same time Goering’s
bodyguard refused to obey orders and was dismissed, the
Prussian police being assigned this vital task.

June 20. Wednesday. A copy of^an address delivered at Mar-
burg by Vice-Chancellor von Papen last Sunday was sent me by
Junius Wood of the Chicago Daily News. The address was a
moderate and entirely reasonable criticism of the Hitler autoc-
racy. It was made before the university which has been known
for its opposition to Hitler’s religious coercions. President von
Hindenburg had read the address before its delivery ; he had
telegraphed hearty approval. But Goebbels, learning of its
content, had suppressed the speech after the Frankfurter ^eitung
and one Berlin paper had published parts of it.

There is now great excitement all over Germany. All old and
intellectual Germans are highly pleased. We made copies of the
address in English and mailed it to Washington. Hitler’s emo-
tional speech near Munich on Monday is now better under-
stood. His visit to Von Hindenburg, as reported for tomorrow,
is a part of the excitement. All guards of the leaders are said* to
be showing signs of revolt. At the same time, aircraft practice
and military drills and manoeuvres are reported to be increas-
ingly common sights by those who drive about the country.

June 2X. Thursday. I learned this afternoon that the New
fork Times asked that the whole of Von Papcn’s speech be
cabled over. London and Paris papers are featuring the Von
Papen episode.

At a press conference given by Goebbels at 5 o’clock, Dr,

126 MARCH 5, 1934 TO JULY 8, 1034

Schacht made another defence of the German moratorium and
demanded a freer world trade if German debts are to be paid.
The audience showed intense interest I thought Schacht’s
points were, in general, well taken ; but his digs at England and
America seemed to me rather unwise in view of the helpless
condition of Germany as compared to those countries. Every-
body noted Von Papen’s presence and, at the close, as many
people crowded around him as about Schacht, or even more.
He sat down at Goebbels’ table to take a cup of tea when the
address was over and shook hands with Goebbels who after the
Marburg speech would have ordered his prompt execution if
Hitler and Von Hindenburg had not intervened.

June 23. Saturday. We had a luncheon where Sir Eric
Phipps, Dr. Schmitt, and the widow of Gustav Stresemann were
present. There was no useful discussion except a long con-
fidential talk between Schmitt and Sir Eric when the other
guests were taking their coffee on the glassed-in terrace which
fronts the beautiful garden in the rear of our house. Lochner of
the Associated Press and Miss Schultz of the Chicago Tribune
talked about all the rumours, true and untrue, but no new de-
cisions were reported to have been made by the government.

The week closes quietly but with great uneasiness. At 6 30
Ambassador Long called long distance from Rome, very anxious
to know the state of things here. I was surprised at his indis-
cretion, but talked as freely as the eavesdropping of the German
Secret Police would allow. I said . All is quiet here ; there is a
good deal of discussion of Von Papen’s speech. He asked about
the reaction to it and I said perhaps two-thirds of the people I
am in contact with endorse it; there was a conference Sunday
at the President’s house at Neudeck; there is no great dis-
turbance in Germany that I know of as yet but a considerable
tension in the atmosphere and some anxiety about Austria where
there has been no improvement since the Venice conference.

This was perhaps too much to say but Long pressed questions.

I hung up the receiver a little annoyed and uneasy. I would not
think of calling the American Ambassador in Rome in the midst
of impending events of great importance when the existence of
the Mussolini regime was in question. No wires in Europe,

MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934 127

England excepted, are ever free of eavesdroppers when such
talk is indulged in. I hope no ill results of this may come.

June 24, Sunday, A quiet day. I spent one hour and a half in
my office. I received a long, interesting letter from Norman
Davis now in London. He thinks Germany must return to the
League or be ruined, also that England and the United States
must unite in their attitudes on the Far East before the coming
naval conference.

June 28, Thursday During the last five days, stories of many
kinds have tended to make the Berlin atmosphere more tense
than at any time since I have been in Germany. I cabled
Washington that the situation was much as it was in Paris in
1792 when the Girondins and Jacobins were struggling for
supremacy The Von Papen speech was discussed every day.
Hitler and Goering and Goebbels spoke almost every day
attacking those who objected in any manner to the existing
regime. Goering and Hitler were together at the Krupp plant
in Essen today, and there was some comment on their apparent
agreement against Von Papen.

June 2g, Friday, We gave a luncheon at the usual hour. The
first arrival was Madame Cerruti, the wife of the Italian Am-
bassador She showed considerable nervousness. She sat on my
right at the table and quickly indicated that her husband worked
to the limit, that we were all on a volcano. ‘‘The Germans are
again in the position of J\ily, 1914; we may be plunged into
war again ; these people are simply crazy.” I was not convinced
but felt concerned since it had been only a week since she had
witnessed the conference of Mussolini and Hitler at Venice.
Something was in the atmosphere.

Across the table sat Von Papen on the right of my wife. On
the left was Ambassador Luther, just returned from Washing-
ton, where State Department officials had shown no liking for
him when I was there. Secretary Hull had told Assistant Secre-
tary of State R. Walton Moore that he must not have Luther
to dine with me at Moore’s house April 15. But Luther was
most charming today, witty, friendly to our President, and

128 MARCH 5, 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

humorous on the subject of our Congress. Von Papen, however,
was less talkative, reserved but good-humoured.

When we arose Luther and Von Papen edged up to one
another in the room adjoining the dining-room There was a
rather tense attitude between the two. I intervened and asked
them to come with me to the sun parlour. There Limburg-
Stirum, Minister from the Netherlands, joined us and the con-
versation turned to politics. I remarked : Herr von Papen, you
and Dr. Goebbels seemed to be quite friendly at Hamburg the
other day. He laughed and said it was an agreeable occasion,
the people were very enthusiastic in their greetings. I then
alluded to the speech Von Papen had made the day before at
some club and noted the fact that Hitler was absent, though
expected to be present. Luther and Limburg-Stirum joined in
a discussion of the speeches and hinted at differences in their
attitudes. There was no favourable comment on Goebbels.
Von Papen said just as he was rising to go : ^‘Anyway I shall not
be torpedoed.’’ As the party broke up the Vice-Chancellor and
Luther went away together and in the same car.

June JO. Saturday. This afternoon as we sat down to lunch
about 2, William returned from a drive to Unter den Linden
and reported that the streets were closed and that arrests had
been made, at Chief of Staff Roehm’s headquarters, of S.A.
officials. There were rumours of violence in Munich.

It is clear some putsch or coup d’etat is on. A rather uneasy
evening followed. I received today a formal note from Roehm’s
office declining my invitation to him for a dinner on July 6. In
view of the uncertainty of the situation, perhaps it was best he
did not accept. On the other hand, it might have meant some-
thing more ominous than appeared on the surface. His excuse
was that he was to be away on a cure.

July I. Sunday. Although the papers say but little, I learn
from various sources that Hitler and Goebbels journeyed yester-
day morning at 2 o’clock from Godesberg in the Rhineland to
Munich and there ordered the execution of two officials of the
famous S A. troops. At six, he was at Wiessee, some forty miles
away, where he went into Stabschef Roehm’s sleeping-rooms and

MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934 129

ordered his arrest and execution, Roehm’s guard failing to
defend their chief. He also ordered the death of several other
chiefs of the S A and returned to Berlin at 1.30 where Goering
had already seized Roehm’s elaborate house and caused General
von Schleicher to be killed in his home. Although the streets of
Berlin gave no sign today of disorder, there were constant
rumours of summary executions. Vice-Chancellor von Papen
and his family were imprisoned in their house and his staff
were reported to be killed or imprisoned. We drove a little too
leisurely, perhaps, by his house this afternoon, but on purpose.
It was a strange day, with only ordinary news in the papers.

July 3. Tuesday, For two days, the excitement has been in-
tense. Newspaper men came and went all day. They made sen-
sational reports as the facts, of course, required. Some of them
were, however, unsupported except by rumours.

Martha called Tuesday at the house of a German acquaint-
ance where we had dined once. A strange telegram from Lon-
don had been delivered to me by young Berard, personal
intimate of the French Ambassador, and I learned that this
acquaintance, an able German liberal, was in London, that his
house had been searched on Saturday at 8 and that the police
had taken his son to a prison near the Anhalter Bahnhof where
he had been held incommunicado since Saturday. I thought
Martha might help the family a little by calling and at the
same time not compromise the government in Washington.

July 4. Wednesday, After a busy morning in the office, I ate
lunch at the usual hour and drove to Dr. Schmitt’s to pay him a
brief call as he has been ill a few days and was reported to be
going away on leave for a month or two. I knew that Hitler
had visited him yesterday afternoon under heavy guard and
was not sure but that Schmitt was about to resign for good.

He showed that he had been seriously ill — overworked too —
and I did not remain with him long. He was greatly troubled
about the horrors of the last few days and asked what American
opinion was. I said : You can guess when I say that if our Presi-
dent were to arrest a man without a warrant and then put him
to death, he would be impeached and removed from office.
£

130 MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

Schmitt seemed not to understand fully and I simply added :
Our people cannot imagine such things happening in their
country as have happened here.

We talked a little about German economic distress and the
health of my host. He said he was leaving tonight and would
be away some five or six weeks and would then come back to his
difficult task. He said he would like to resign but felt he must
not do so for his country’s sake. He did not mention Hitler’s
visit, but I think the Chancellor practically forbade him to re-
sign now. I came away rather depressed : so good and true a
man compelled to serve under a regime which he considers
murderous. If he resigned I think he would be in danger of
being killed.

I noted that Schmitt did not repeat his invitation to my wife
and myself to spend a week with him at his home in Bavaria.
It might endanger his life. Since the attitude of the Nazi leaders
is so violently anti-foreign, close contact between diplomats
and Germans seem really dangerous at the moment. He lives
near Berchtesgaden where Hitler spends about a third of his
time. If I were at Schmitt’s and did not offer to visit Hitler, it
would look partisan, and I certainly would not ask to see any
man who has committed a score of murders the last few days.

We gave a big reception today, with at least 300 callers, some
very interesting people, among them the musician Kreisler who
tours the United States each year. There were others of almost
equal appeal, many of them showing concern about their
position here, but none daring to mention events of the last
five days. We were really tired when the entertainment was
over. Newspapers went the limit in asking for photos.

July 5. Thursday. An eminent professor at the University of
Berlin called at noon to talk with me about an address I was to
make before the history faculty and students on the 13th. We
agreed that it would be best to call it off. University professors
might be embarrassed or even endangered by my appearance
among them at this time, and I might be made uncomfortable
by some newspaper story that might get into print.

He was greatly perturbed because of recent events. He said
the London Times editorial on Germany’s return to medieval-

MARCH 5, 1934 TO JULY 8, I 934 I3I

ism of July 3 was entirely true. He said: ‘Toor Germany, she
cannot recover in decades to come. If I could go to any other
of the greater countries, I would leave the university at once.’’
That is how most professors and students feel. He says Hitler
has aroused a savagery and barbarism which he thought had
long since disappeared In my opinion it is a curious quality of
the Nazi mass mind here which passed away in England with
the Stuart kings in 1688.

July 6 . Friday, I received a cable from Secretary Hull this
morning asking me to protest to the German Government
against the payment of British creditors of Germany, under the
Dawes-Young plan, and the announced purpose not to pay
American creditors under the same plan. I have protested three
times before about these discriminations and they have had no
effect at any time, for the German exports to the United States
are only one-fourth of American exports to Germany. While
debts are valid and interest is due, German balances are utterly
unequal to the payment of obligations.

At 5.30, I sat down with Von Neurath and handed him
Hull’s telegram. Both of us were embarrassed. He knew Ger-
many had done wrong to promise the payment of English debts
and not pay American ; I knew the same ; both of us knew Ger-
many could not pay even the English debt. She must promise
to do so in the hope of preventing England from joining France
in case of war which might come any day, if the wilder elements
of Germany get the upper hand. He asked me to say he was
sorry and would pay, if any reserves were available, but these
are not at all probable. The Reichsbank shows a worse con-
dition every week.

When this disagreeable impasse was over, I asked a question
about the recent atrocities. Von Neurath said Hitler, Goering
and Goebbels were to have been killed last Saturday and that
all the Cabinet members were to have been put in jail. Von
Schleicher and Roehm were to have been the chiefs in a new
putsch and S.A. men were to have taken over the governing
forces. He added this would have meant civil war. I said little,
merely asking if Hitler now really listened to him and other
wiser men of the regime. He said: ‘‘Yes.” I returned to the

132 MARCH 5, 1934 TO JULY 8 , I 934

office and wired Secretary Hull at once about this curious
conversation.

Charles R. Crane and his son, Richard, came to an informal
dinner. Baron von Bulow, Admiral Spindler, retired naval com-
mander and author of a three-volume history of the German
navy in the World War, and three or four others were present.
I had asked the Crown Prince, General Goering, Minister of
Education Rust, Ambassador Nadolny and ex-Minister von
Kuhlmann, all of whom for curious but unavowed reasons de-
clined. I knew the Crown Prince wished to come, but he has
been under government observation since June 30. Goering
had directed the killing of opponents for a week, more than
seventy-five people in all, and it was a relief that he did not
appear. I don’t know what I would have done if he had. Am-
bassador Nadolny, dismissed from his post in Moscow because
he had tried to get a commercial treaty adopted between
the two countries, was deliberately out of the country. Rust
never replied to my invitation and Von Kuhlmann was in
South Germany. The Cranes understood the absences, though
they did not criticize all the ruthless terrorism of recent
measures.

The moment I sat down to eat, the telephone rang. I an-
swered and was told that a New York Times photographer,
who had been taking pictures of our house and all members of
the family, was under arrest because the car he drove happened
to bear the number of a car which had been seen at General
von Schleicher’s house before he was killed. I called the Consul-
General and asked him to make contact with police officials and
secure the release of the American employee, although he was
a German, unless some crime were proved or charged. Consul
Geist went about his task. When we were finishing dinner Geist
and Birchall of the Times called to announce that the man was
released. It is a rather tense atmosphere when such things are
happening all the time, even though not to Americans. But the
dinner went off well and the elder Crane was very amusing —
telling stories all evening.

A curious incident of the week : On July 4, when I learned
that Vice-Chancellor von Papen had been released from prison,

I sent a brief note expressing my good wishes and saying I

MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934 133

would call if he thought it would be agreeable. The note was
in an Embassy envelope and it was delivered by messenger. By
mistake it was left at the office of the Vice-Chancellor. On the
5th5 the son of Von Papen called and I asked if his father had
received my letter. He said : “No.” I then sent a messenger to
the man who had receipted the letter to ask what he had done
with it. He referred to a police officer in the room from which
office furniture was being taken. The police official said it had
been sent to the Secret Police. This is typical Nazi behaviour.
This is the second letter of mine that has been opened before
delivery.

July 7. Saturday. I was in the office until noon. In the after-
noon at 4 o’clock we drove to the home of Professor Erich
Marcks, my old Leipzig professor, and there had tea and talked
for an hour. He and his son, an officer in the Reichswehr,
showed uneasiness and sorrow. Marcks’ older son had been
private secretary to General von Schleicher some years ago, and
all the family were glad to know their older son was thus far
safe. They had received a letter on the 6th very carefully
worded but showing the safety of the older son, now a higher
officer of the Reichswehr in Munster.

July 8 . Sunday. I received a telegram from Secretary Hull
asking me to see German officials and try once more to correct
their attitudes on debt payments. The American public does
not understand debt problems and the Secretary feels compelled
to keep prodding Berlin foreign officials. I shall go again to
the Foreign Office tomorrow and see if any possible satisfaction
can be given, I see no way out except a frank moratorium.

I had a curious illustration today of German naivete in treat-
ing foreign problems The Carl Schurz Foundation, supported
by government aid, had arranged a dinner today at the Auto-
mobile Club. I had agreed to attend the preliminary reception.
But the president of the foundation asked me if I would make
a short speech about Von Hindenburg if he opened the talk
after dinner with an address on President Roosevelt. At such a
moment a German speech by a Nazi leader on Roosevelt would
have been most unwelcome, but a reply by me on Von Hinden-

134 MARCH 5 , 1934 TO JULY 8, I934

burg after his approval of the murders of the last few days
would have started nation-wide indignation. I refused, and to
avoid any possible embarrassment I declined also to attend the
dinner.

In such matters even the best of Germans are easily misled.
Germany is tense in every section. The outside world is almost
entirely hostile. There are fifty American guests at this same
dinner this moment. They are all nervous and some of them
said to me this afternoon that they had requested that no press
announcement be made of the reception and dinner because
they are aware of an easy misunderstanding in America. I can
think of no country where the psychology is so abnormal as that
which prevails here now. Frenchmen seemed to me in 1928
almost as ‘‘crazy.”

My task here is to work for peace and better relations. I do
not see Bow anything can be done so long as Hitler, Goering
and Goebbels are the directing heads of the country. Never
have I heard or read of three more unfit men in high place.
Ought I to resign?

July igg4 to September igj4

July g, Monday, I learned this morning that Professor Mors-
bach, who had invited American professors and students to
travel about Germany for a month and who had managed the
foreign student exchange fellowships, is in prison and in danger
of being killed. He happened to be an acquaintance, perhaps
a friend, of Roehm, S.A. Stabschef killed at Wiessee, near
Munich, on June 30. A committee of the Carl Schurz Founda-
tion visitors tells me the Americans are amazed that their host
is thus persecuted, without proof, at the very moment of their
arrival. They ask if I can do anything. Morsbach being a
German citizen, I have no authority or rights in the case.
But the unusual aspects in the case led me to call acting Consul-
General Geist and commission him to make inquiries and report
to the American travellers.

July II. Wednesday. Mr. Geist reported that Professor Mors-
bach is in a concentration camp near Wittenberg. His hair was
clipped close to the skin ; his clothing was that of a field hand,
with the large letter L on his shirt-front (the name of the camp
begins with L — Landsberg) ; he had not been allowed to shave
since his incarceration There were 300 sterilized German
workers in the camp. When Geist, in the presence of police
oflficials who had driven him to the lonely camp and the super-
intendent of the prison, was about to say farewell to Morsbach,
the persecuted professor said : “Please give my regards to and
thank the American Ambassador.” Geist said there were
strange, surprised expressions on every face.

July 12. Thursday, We had forty of the Carl Schurz Founda-
tion visitors at our house for a reception. It was an interesting
and distinguished company. Reports of courtesies and atten-
tions from the German semi-officials who had shown them

136 JULY 9, 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934

around Berlin and ancient Potsdam were many and appre-
ciative, but all said : ‘‘Strange, we can hear nothing about the
horrible deeds or about public attitudes from anybody. Nobody
ventures a remark and no newspaper gives any of the facts.”

The party adjourned at 6 30 and we went an hour later to
dinner at Fritz Kreisler’s marvellous house in Dahlem. Kreisler
is forbidden to conduct or give concerts in Germany because he
is a Jew. There were German and American guests but no one
indulged in any frank discussion about anything but the United
States and the subject of art, which I said was about to collapse
in Europe.

Strange, is it not, that Germany has had no great literary
light since Goethe ; England no great writers since the World
War; the United States not a great historian since Henry
Adams, not a great writer since Mark Twain; and few great
artists anywhere of genuine creative character? Kreisler, who
enthusiastically showed me a signed portrait of Mussolini, said,
“It is all because we have democratic government everywhere,
except at present in Germany and Italy, where there has not yet
been time to develop masters under dictatorial power.” A state-
ment like this is false, because all great writers and historians
have been developed in spite of dictatorships and patronage, not
because of them.

A good German woman who is a close friend of the Kreislers
took pains to show me a portrait of her baby, a sturdy, healthy-
looking child of six months, and made a point more than once
of the Hohenzollern dogma (even more Hitler’s dogma) :
“Women’s business is Kirche, Kinder and Kuche (church,
children and kitchen).” "She looked "quite equal to the under-
taking. I did not argue the matter.

July 13, Friday, A busy day. At 9.30 I gave an interview to
an American group who insisted on some explanation of Hitler
Germany. I devoted an hour to them as all were teachers or
writers at home. Some statements made were confidential and
given with the understanding that I was not to be reported to
anyone. I shall see perhaps some echoes in the American press
later but so far almost all who have come to me and with whom
I have talked frankly, have kept faith. I have no complaints to

JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934 137

make of anybody, though I have given facts and judgments that
would certainly give trouble if they were known to have come
from me.

This evening at 8 o’clock, the Chancellor is to proclaim to the
world in the old Reichstag building, restored after last year’s
burning, the reasons for the murders which he has perpetrated
since June 29. Everybody looks forward to the meeting with
great interest or seems to do so. I decided last Tuesday that I
would never again attend an address of the Chancellor or seek
an interview for myself except upon official grounds, I have a
sense of horror when I look at the man. Consequently on
Wednesday afternoon when I visited Sir Eric Phipps, British
Ambassador here, and he asked : ‘'Are you going to hear the
Chancellor on Friday?”, I replied: No. He said, rather
humorously, he thought it would be “a grand show, all kinds
of flashlights, photographers and pomp.” But I replied : He is
such a horror to me, I cannot endure his presence.

After discussing British-American debt relations and de-
claring to him that the English creditors ought not to demand
preferential treatment over American creditors to whom the
Germans owe twice as much under the Dawes-Young plan as
to the English, I asked : Do you not think the British act of
Parliament compelling bankrupt Germans to pay was pushed
through by interested parties without due consideration? He
agreed, though he added : ‘T have no authority at all to discuss
matters officially. Still, I think you are right and it would be
better for international relations for England and France to
accept the German moratorium in the same spirit as the
Americans ” He agreed to discuss the matter in Downing
Street when he returned next week. I said I would wire the gist
of our conversation to the State Department where public
opinion presses very hard for equal treatment.

On Friday afternoon, I had a walk with the French Ambas-
sador, Frangois-Poncet, in the Tiergarten, the only really peace-
ful spot I have access to, outside my home, at the moment. He
was incensed at the German charges that he had conspired with
Von Schleicher and Roehm, and at the failure of the Foreign
Office officials here to force public disavowal on the part of
Goering or Goebbels. He gave me his interpretation of the so-

138 JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934

called ‘‘conspiracy of foreign powers” in the German Reich. He
knew von Schleicher fairly well ; he had dined with him and
Roehm ; and there had been talk of pressure on Hitler and the
French Government for a sensible agreement on disarmament.
That was all.

I had declined to call on the Ambassador today because I
feared the fact of my visiting the British yesterday plus a visit
to the French today would be observed by the Germans and in-
terpreted as an effort on my part to persuade the Ambassadors
to remain at home when the Chancellor made his speech That
was the reason we walked an hour in the famous park. But
Frangois-Poncet told me as we parted : “I shall not attend the
address.” And he went on to say that conditions are so acute
that “I would not be surprised any time to be shot on the streets
of Berlin. Because of this my wife remains in Pans. The Ger-
mans hate us so and their leadership is so crazy.”

I have not felt myself in danger, though I know the leaders
here cannot like me : my whole philosophy of life is so different
and they must know it. Eminent German professors and leaders
of the old order come to me in all confidence and tell me facts
and attitudes that would cause their deaths if known. Poor fel-
lows. However, they do not know the real cause of Germany’s
reign of terror: the failure of the 1848 movement to resolve it-
self into a democratic parliamentary system and the failure of
Bismarck to wean his Prussians away from the military brutal-
ism hallowed by the successes of Frederick the Great. Bismarck
had the chance at the end of the 1 866 war, again in 1 87 1 when he
had all powejr and could have refused to annex Alsace-Lorraine.
Frederick III might have served Germany, but a cancer of the
throat took him away within a year after his accession to the
throne. No historian has seen this, not even in republican
Germany of 1919-1933.

At 8 o’clock we turned on the radio and heard Hitler’s heated
and emotional story of the conspiracy to take his life and of his
necessary killing of the “traitors.” Roehm who had been in jail
with him for months in 1923 and who fought with him through
the long brutal struggle for the overthrow of republican
Germany, was the major traitor in all the manoeuvres of
April, May and June. Von Schleicher was the next criminal.

JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934 I39

and with them foreign representatives were supposed to have
intrigued. There is some doubt in my mind that Roehm
planned the overthrow of Hitler and the death of several
members of the Cabinet.

Hitler told the world that Roehm had raised 1 2,000,000
marks and spent them in his wicked cause. Of course Roehm
had no chance to deny anything, nor any of his friends. The
statement that Germans who sat in conference with foreign
representatives in Germany, keeping secret what was said, were
traitors and to be killed did not improve troubled relations out-
side. I was glad I did not go to the meeting where artificial
applause was vociferous and where, it was clear even over the
radio, all the Germans were frequently rising and giving the
Hitler greeting The Chancellor retired from the building at
10 o’clock, everybody cheering except the diplomats.

July 14, Saturday, I had lunch with Dr. Schacht at the
Reichsbank, a famous state dining-room. Finance Minister
Schwerin-Krosigk was present too. He had been reported to be
under arrest some days before. He was present at the Chan-
cellor’s meeting last night but he said nothing. I knew what he
thought. Schacht said he too was reported to be shot. I walked
home with Counsellor John C. White, and had a quiet afternoon
and evening, writing two hours on my Old South,

July 15, Sunday. In the office at noon, Vice-Chancellor von
Papen called and sat for half an hour describing the terror of
the last two weeks. His confidential assistant, Von Bose, was
shot for possible contact with Von Schleicher. He was much
excited and asked that I should not report anything he said
either to the press or to the State Department in Washington.

Hitler had been an hour with him yesterday begging him to
remain in the Cabinet and to co-operate. Von Papen said he
could not promise anything at the moment. He also indicated
his hatred of Goering and Goebbels and said he demanded
proof of the guilt of his assistant who had been killed and others
who were put into prison, their heads shaved, with no know-
ledge of what would happen to them from day to day. This was
Hitler’s treatment of all who are suspected of disloyalty. Von

140 JULY 9, 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934

Papen was also very critical of Von Neurath who “never does
anything.’’ As Von Papen’s car stood at the Chancery nearly
an hour, the American press learned the fact and cabled their
papers. The German Secret Police probably know more by now.

July 16 Monday. I lunched at home with the Russian Am-
bassador who is going home for good next Sunday. His name is
pronounced Khinchuck, though I do not think it is spelled that
way. He is not a communist though he fights valiantly for the
cause.

The British Ambassador, Sir Eric Phipps, was also present
as was Mr, Harry Hopkins, confidant, it seems, of President
Roosevelt. Sir Eric was as non-communicative as ever. Mr.
Hopkins was engaging and rather glad we had not arranged an
interview with Hitler according to his telegraphed request. He
said he would be ashamed to shake hands with such a murderer.

Another guest, George Harnson, president of the New York
Federal Reserve Bank, was more liberal in philosophy than I
had expected, but very much concerned about Germany’s being
commanded by England to pay 6 and 7 per cent interest on the
hundred million dollar Dawes-Young loans, while the United
States creditors under the same plan to the extent of two
hundred millions receive nothing. He journeys home in two
days with Montagu Norman, president of the Bank of England.
Norman thinks the British Government made a mistake in
demanding preferential treatment.

At 5.30 I presented the U.S. Government protest against
payment to British creditors if Americans cannot be paid. Von
Neurath was as concerned as I was. I know well Germany
cannot pay any of her obligations if conditions continue as now.
I stayed with the Minister only ten minutes.

July ly. Tuesday. At Fran^ois-Poncet’s luncheon in honour of
Khinchuck, there was Sir Eric Phipps, also the Spanish Ambas-
sador. It was a most correct and protocol affair. The conversa-
tion at the table was more about history than present conditions
in Europe. When we all stood for a half hour in the grand re-
ception-room, Sir Eric called me aside to ask if I did not th i nk
the diplomatic corps should send their dean, the Papal Nuncio,

JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934 I4I

to the German Foreign Office in October to know whether we
should not all refuse to entertain any German officials at our
houses m view of the Chancellor’s denunciation of Germans
who attended diplomatic entertainments. I agreed we should
make such a move and then I added: I think we should all
agree too on the limitations of large dinners and receptions.
He agreed. We shall see what comes of it. Certainly Germans
fear now to be seen at a diplomat’s house.

July ig. Thursday, Mattie, my wife, and I sat down to dinner
with the bankers at the Mann mansion in Dahlem. To my
surprise. Von Ribbentrop, Hitler’s confidential negotiator, was
present. He was a little nervous, talked of a visit to the United
States next October, and also stressed the fact that the U.S,
has 8 billions of gold and Germany only 20 millions ! ‘‘How can
your people ever suffer?”

We came home impressed again with the bankers’ fear of
German collapse. No one has any confidence in Hitler’s ability
to direct German affairs.

July 22, Sunday, Today I spent two hours in the Embassy
office. At 12.30, I took a half hour’s walk in the Tiergarten
where one saw the agreeable effects of the rain which had fallen
the night before, though all the elms, blighted by some strange
disease, showed no signs of improvement. At i .30, we sat down
to Sunday dinner with Herr Diehn and several professors and
others, including their wives. Although no one liked to talk
frankly before Diehn, there was general and bitter criticism of
the Hitler regime and its barbarism, unparalleled since the 1
Middle Ages. One professor and his wife lingered a long time
and were the most sorrowful of all about the Germany in which
they live. I was a little surprised in view of the dangers in-
volved in case anyone should report on them.

July 24, Tuesday, Mattie, William and I all went to dinner
at the house of Von Ribbentrop. We arrived at 8.10 at his
beautiful home in Dahlem with a marvellous lawn in the rear.
The guest of honour was Ambassador Cerruti of Italy, peculiarly
silent all evening. Henry Mann and his wife were also guests.

142 JULY 9, 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934

Mann, former Nazi enthusiast, showed no patience with the
Hitler regime now. He told us that about July i a neighbour of
his was coaxed out of his house, misled to Mann’s house and
there murdered. The dead body remained on Mann’s front
door steps one whole day. Then it was removed and Mann’s
servants were asked by the police to wash up the blood.

Another strange fact: Count Helldorf, Chief of Police of
Potsdam, had been reported as shot to death on June 30. We
were amazed to be introduced to “Count Helldorf, Chief of
Police of Potsdam.” He showed himself a rather silent figure in
Nazi uniform, his wife sitting on my left and talking a good
deal about the wisdom of Hitler’s sterilization law, and the need
of sterilizing all Negroes in the United States. "^Tf you do not
do this, the Negroes will one day own the country. White
people are not increasing since immigration is not allowed.”
After the party left the table Countess Helldorf talked again
about the vicious Jews who never work and who never live in a
country where the population cannot be exploited by them.
The Count himself joined his wife in this. The Italian Am-
bassador remained silent.

I was surprised and a little affronted at the presence at the
dinner of young James Lee, son of Ivy Lee, the clever big busi-
ness propagandist who has been trying for a year or more to sell
the Nazi regime to the American public. A House of Represen-
tatives investigation, organized by Dickstein, revealed that Ivy
Lee has been receiving $33,000 a year for this work. Why did
Von Ribbentrop invite Helldorf and Lee to meet us?

We returned, quite tired and disgusted, at ii o’clock. I
had a good baked apple and a glass of milk before I went to
sleep.

^ Jvly 25. Wednesday. A busy day preparing, reading, and
signing reports for Washington. A fantastic story came to me
of an alleged Jewish-Hohenzollem conspiracy last winter and
spring to put Hitler out of power, with 12,000,000 marks sent
over by Jews. The Crown Prince was mixed up in the affair
and talked too much. Goering’s Secret Police learned of the in-
trigues. Roehm and Von Schleicher were involved. Von Papen
carried the story to Von Hindenberg who compelled Hitler at

JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934 I43

last to act, which resulted in the June 30 terror. I think the idea
in reporting this fantasy to me was an attempt to deceive me
with this sort of history of the terror.

At 5 o’clock while I was talking with a committee of Ameri-
can municipal reformers here studying German city life, Consul
Geist called me on the telephone and reported a conversation
he had just had with Minister Messersmith in Vienna. A putsch
of the German Nazis in Austria had been on for five hours.
Dollfuss was overthrown and promised to surrender his powers.
A little later the Heimwehr, Dollfuss’ supporters, released the
Austrian dictator who at once retracted all his promises.

I asked Geist to walk home with me. He came and as we
strolled along the canal towards home, I told him how unwise
it was for Messersnaith to talk over the long distance with the
Consulate here. With Messersmith known as very hostile to the
Nazis, and both of us watched all the time, such indiscretion
might be considered by the Germans as a sort of intrigue of our
diplomatic work which would do both of us and our government
harm. I had warned Messersmith before he went to Vienna, but
I had not sufficiently warned Geist.

July 26. Thursday, A very busy day, I sent two telegrams to
Washington explaining the putsch against the Austrian Govern-
ment by the Nazi conspirators.

The attack upon Austria, from all evidence, was supported if
not planned by the German Propaganda Ministry. Last
February Ernst Hanfstaengl told me that he brought what was
practically an order from Mussolini that Germans must leave
Austria alone, and that Theodor Habicht, the German agent in
Munich for Austrian annexation, must be dismissed and silenced.
In May and June, Mussolini pretended to be in accord with
the German anti-French, anti-Russian policy, and June 18, at
Venice, Hitler was reported to have promised Mussolini to
leave Austria alone. At any rate, great ado was made in the
German press about the friendly accord of the two '‘greatest
statesmen” of Europe. On June 30 came the Hitler murder of
“traitors” and their assistants.

Mussolini, who had murdered even more Italians than Hitler
has thus far murdered Germans, allowed his press to denounce

144 JULY 9, 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, 1034

Hitler unmercifully. On Monday, July 23, after repeated
bombings in Austria by Nazis, a boat loaded with explosives
was seized on Lake Constance by the Swiss police. It was a
shipment of German bombs and shells to Austria from some
arms plant. That looked ominous to me, but events of the kind
had been so common that I did not report it to Washington.

Today evidence came to my desk that last night, as late as
eleven o’clock, the government issued formal statements to the
newspapers rejoicing at the fall of Dollfuss and proclaiming
the Greater Germany that must follow. The German Minister
in Vienna had actually helped to form the new Cabinet. He
had, as we now know, exacted a promise that the gang of
Austrian Nazi murderers should be allowed to go into Germany
undisturbed. But it was realized about 12 o’clock that, although
Dollfuss was dead, the loyal Austrians had surrounded the
government palace and prevented the organization of a new
Nazi regime. They held the murderers prisoners. The Ger-
man Propaganda Ministry therefore forbade publication of the
news sent out an hour before and tried to collect all the re-
leases that had been distributed. A copy was brought to me
today by a friend.

All the German papers this morning lamented the cruel
murder and declared that it was simply an attack of discon-
tented Austrians, not Nazis. News from Bavaria shows that
thousands of Austrian Nazis living for a year in Bavaria on
German support had been active for ten days before, some
getting across the border contrary to law, all drilling and making
ready to return "to Austria. The German propagandist Habicht
was still making radio speeches about the necessity of annexing
the ancient realm of the Hapsburgs to the Third Reich, in
spite of all the promises of Hitler to silence him. But now
that the drive has failed and the assassins are in prison in
Vienna, the German Government denounces all who say
there was any support from Berlin.

I think it will be clear one day that millions of dollars and
many arms have been pouring into Austria since the spring
of 1933. Once more the whole world is condemning the Hitler
regime. No people in all modern history has been quite so un-
popular as Nazi Germany. This stroke completes the picture.

JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934 I45

I expect to read a series of bitter denunciations in the American
papers when they arrive about ten days from now.

July 28, Saturday I have been requested to visit all con-
sulates in Germany and make reports as to work done and the
character and size of the staffs Consul Geist is now visiting
Breslau, Bremen and Hamburg for me Later I shall go to
Leipzig, Dresden, Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Cologne.

There is great need of drastic change in Hamburg where
United States imports and German exports have fallen the last
two years by more than half The consuls at Hamburg are
practically useless, at least one-third of them. It’s a character-
istic attitude of the time for men to live off the government

A Jewish Rabbi, Morris Lazaron from Baltimore, came to
see me this morning. He had letters from Messersmith and
others. He is a friend of Felix and Max Warburg and hopes
to make contact with the Foreign Office people here and see if
a more sensible Jewish policy cannot be adopted He shows no
signs of Jewish characteristics in his ways or countenance, nor
is he a self-conscious person, but he handed me about a dozen
letters to different people here which seemed to show quite
ambitious purposes. I counselled him to go slowly. He might
do harm if not careful. Max Warburg is in Hamburg waiting
for possible signs from Berlin I told Lazaron to be sure he
gave a correct picture of things here to Warburg so as to avoid
any appearance to the Germans of a campaign on my part in
co-operation with these men which might embarrass Foreign
Office officials who have been wise and considerate ever since I
have been here. Hitler has promised me so much and done so
little that I could not give anyone very much encouragement.

July 2g. Sunday* I spent all day working on the Old South,
the most difficult chapter of all thus far, VIII, in which I ex-
plain the Stuart colonial policy and the troubled era in Western
Europe as far as commerce and economic exploitation were
concerned. I have written this chapter three times. I hope this
is the last. There was a most remarkable group of leaders in
England contending sharply with Louis XIV and Jean de
Witt.

146 JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, 1934

July 30. Monday. At 4 o’clock I made a call on Limburg-
Stirum to learn^ if I could, whether the Netherlands and Eng-
land had come to any agreement as to the Far East or on
co-operation with Belgium in case of war between France and
Germany We talked freely about the first subject and he said :
“No; and I fear we are not going to be able to agree with the
Japanese, now in Batavia, as to our commercial proposals. It
was a mistake to have the negotiations in Batavia, for it put us
at a disadvantage and gave the Japanese a chance, which they
are surely using, to stir up trouble with our colonials in Java.”
He then expressed the fear that Japan would force the Chinese
into submission before England and the United States came to
a common policy in that vast region.

“England and Holland are on the best of terms,” he said,
which was no direct answer to my query. I came away, however,
fairly well convinced that the Netherlands are included in the
recent statement of policy whereby England agrees to regard
the Rhine as her eastern frontier m case continental war breaks
out. This means, if true, the completest encirclement Germany
has ever known

July 31. Tuesday Senator Thomas of Utah came in this
morning. He was not slow in letting me know that he is inter-
ested in Mormon missionary work in Germany and that he is
travelling as Oberlaender Fellow with the best wishes of Presi-
dent Roosevelt. He is about sixty years old, was formerly a
college teacher and is now a member of the United States
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I was favourably im-
pressed, although it has always been hard for me to understand
how a man of intellectual distinction can be interested in Mor-
mon missionary work. There are a number of Mormons in
Germany and Hitler has not dissolved their organizations or
expelled their active preachers. There are other than religious
aspects to Hitler’s let-up on the Mormons.

August I, Wednesday. Paul Block, owner • of the Pittsburgh
PosUGazette and the Toledo Blade and of seven other influential
newspapers in United States industrial regions, including New

JULY 9, 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, 1934 H7

York, called and talked for half an hour about his earnest help
of Roosevelt in 1932 and his doubtful support now.

Ambassador Luther called this afternoon. He was a good
deal amused when I showed him a copy of our Consul’s account
of Luther’s clever remarks at a Cologne dinner some weeks
before. Although Luther is very unpopular in Washington, he
shows me every time I see him an appealing trait: frank,
intelligent mental attitudes which few German officials here
venture to show. In order to emphasize this trait in Luther I
forwarded the Consul’s report to Under-Secretary Phillips.

Although the Ambassador was in most things frank and
interesting, neither he nor I mentioned the high officials in
the regime here. I am sure he has no sympathy with the Hitler
brutality and he knows I am most uncomfortable in an atmos-
phere so unnatural in a highly civilized country, which all men
have been disposed to consider Germany in spite of the Hitler
regime.

Both Luther and I agreed that payment of American creditors
depends entirely upon the revival of German-American
trade which both peoples are not ready to make possible. Why
American bankers induced their hundreds of thousands of
clients to buy two billions of German bonds or why they
granted such huge short-term credits between 1924 and 1930,
I cannot understand on any other grounds than that they were
willing to risk their people’s savings in order to make huge
profits themselves.

Luther and I parted company in better understanding than
ever before, though I could go only half-way with him in his
denunciations of the Treaty of Versailles which was not so bad
as the United States coercion of the broken South in 1865-69
which resulted in a fifty-year economic oppression of that
region worse than anything Germany has suffered.

August 2. Thursday, I went to the office early. A few minutes
after I arrived, the news of Von Hindenburg’s death was
announced. At 10 a.m. Hitler sat down with his Cabinet. They
quickly agreed to a ‘‘statute” making the Fuehrer President
without any change of his status as Chancellor. The President
of the Third Reich, Leader of the National Socialist Party,

148 JULY 9, 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, 1934

and Chancellor of the Reich are now all united in one person :
the adolescent Austrian who started the putsch business in 1923
and who has killed hundreds of opponents in order to consoli-
date his powers.

All this was done now in one hour, every member of the
Cabinet rising and heihng Hitler when he finished his state-
ment of his new position. It was also decreed that the Reichs-
wehr, the old military folk, must take an oath of allegiance to
Hitler at once. No time was allowed for any opposition or for
the possible putsch in Berlin which so many people had ex-
pected and many thousands had, doubtless, prayed for.

At 12 o’clock, I went to the Foreign Office, left my card
and signed the usual book of condolence to the German people
for the loss of their single distinguished soul, so far as we
know present German souls. As I stood in the room the
Japanese Ambassador came in, very obsequious in bearing
towards me. In a little while he told me of his visit to Von
Hindenburg a week or two before and of a long talk. It was
astonishing. No member of the German Cabinet except Von
Neurath had been allowed to visit Neudeck since July ii, not
even his close friend. Von Papen How strange for the Japanese
to have been there ! When we had signed the book, I noticed
the Japanese had arranged to see Von Neurath who had re-
turned only the day before. None of the other ambassadors or
ministers had appointments to see the Foreign Secretary, This
looked to me a little unusual too.

August 3, Friday. I must not omit to mention a luncheon
yesterday at home where Senator Thomas, Rabbi Lazaron and
President Clifton Gray of Bates College, with Mrs. Thomas
and our family, made up the group. There has not been better,
freer conversation since we have been here. The Mormon
spoke frankly of Mormon minority unreasonableness. Dr.
Gray, the Baptist divine, and Rabbi Lazaron were equally
frank. Lazaron is here to feel out possibilities for the Warburgs
and others who regret Rabbi Wise’s extreme attitudes. Not
much prospect here, I believe.

Today Dr. Gray brought five or six leading Baptist divines
to the office to assess their situation in Berlin at this critical

JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934 I49

moment. Some fifteen hundred preachers and leaders are here
for a week’s discussion of the Baptist situation. This conference
was set a year before Hitler came to power. Their leading sub-
jects for discussion are : nationalism and race groups ; freedom
of religious opinion; and self-government in church life. These
subjects can hardly be touched upon without challenging Nazi
opposition. According to the Nazi view, all religions in Ger-
many must be merged into one state church; no such thing
as freedom of conscience is possible; and local government of
any sort is close to treason. Free speech in Germany now is an
invitation to be shot.

How these Baptist preachers are to function I cannot guess.
But Dr. Gray and others discussed their problems frankly and
asked my comment, also my assessment of their plan which is to
go on as though no change had come over Germany. When
they were about to leave they asked me to attend their meeting
and take a seat on the platform. Thinking the matter over a
little, I declined for the time. It would look too much like a
challenge to all German official life to which I am accredited.
Yet I was reared a Baptist and am still a non-active member
at Hyde Park, Chicago. Perhaps I should go and show once
more what sort of man America believes is entitled to live un-
disturbed. I will decide after the Hindenburg burial.

I called at the Foreign Office to leave President Roosevelt’s
message to the German Government and nation on this sad
occasion. Von Neurath, whom I was to have seen, delegated
Von Bulow to receive me. We talked a few minutes about Von
Hindenburg’s ideas and qualities of mind, especially as they
had been revealed when I was presented to him on August 29,
1933. Von Bulow had been present and Von Hindenburg gave
me ten or fifteen minutes free conversation, unprecedented I
was told. What he said on international relations and cultural
contacts with the United States would be a sensation if printed
now, and would anger Hitler but delight Germany.

In the afternoon, the British Ambassador called, just re-
turned from his vacation in the Wiltshire hills, and also just
returned from a Von Neurath interview. He said Von Neurath
had told him that he feared Hitler did not know what the
assumption of presidential powers really meant, but according

150 JULY 9, 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I 934

to all reports Von Neurath heiled Hitler yesterday when
supreme powers were taken on. I have never seen evidence that
the Secretary ever resists the arbitrary conduct of the Fuehrer.

Sir Eric acknowledged that England had declared her eastern
border was the Rhine. “What else could we do?” He thinks
Hitler would gladly go to war if he had the power and there-
fore that all Europe must keep united against Germany, which
seems to me to be necessary if Europe is not to collapse one
day under thousands of airplanes dropping bombs and poison
gases. France played a sad game in 1919 and then continued
her mistake under the League from 1930 to 1932. That helped
to give Germany Hitler, but Hitler, once in power, lost Ger-
many all the growing sympathy of England and America by
his barbaric conduct. Now, as Sir Eric says, all Europe must
watch Germany day and night, living under an encirclement
system which may even bring economic collapse. We parted
company, discouraged, at 7 o’clock.

August 4. Saturday, I worked in the office until 12.30 and
then I quit for the day. A delegation of American forestry
people came and we talked a while about the wonderful
German forests which they are studying.

August 5. Sunday, I spent an hour in the office to see if any
telegrams had come in and to read some letters from the
United States. Then I finished my reading of Pepys’s Diary to
get touches of social habits and graft in Stuart England. Many
things reminded me of the habits and methods which prevail
in Nazi Germany. But there is one trait here, the love of
animals, which reveals a German characteristic I have never
noticed in any reading I have previously done.

The Germans love horses and dogs especially. At a time
when nearly every German is afraid to speak a word to any but
the closest friends, horses and dogs are so happy that one feels
they wish to talk. A woman who may report on a neighbour
for disloyalty and jeopardize his life, even cause his death,
takes her big kindly-looking dog in the Tiergarten for a walk.
She talks to him and coddles him as she sits on a bench and
he attends to the requirements of nature. The dog is never

JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934 I5I

scolded or kicked, which is so common in the United States.
He is never nervous, never shows any fear of any sort and is
always fat and clean.

Only horses seem to be equally happy, never the children
or the youth. I often stop as I walk to my office and have a
word with a pair of beautiful horses waiting while their wagon
is being unloaded. They are so clean and fat and happy that
one feels that they are on the point of speaking. If I raise my
hand as if to hit one of the pair, he does not even dodge his
head. He has not the slightest notion that anybody would
harm him. The law forbids cruelty to animals here, and any
man who maltreats a horse or dog or cow is liable to immediate
imprisonment.

In Nurnberg last December I noticed the same kind of
^ 'horse happiness” and approached a pair of wonderful greys
as I came out of the Lord Mayor’s and petted them. They
seemed to understand me. It was the same in Dresden.
Animals are the only happy beings I see, unless the birds are
equally so, but I see few birds.

At a time when hundreds of men have been put to death
without trial or any sort of evidence of guilt, and when the
population literally trembles with fear, animals have rights
guaranteed them which men and women cannot think of ex-
pecting. One might easily wish he were a horse !

August 6 . Monday, At 12 o’clock, my wife and I took our
places in the Reichstag auditorium where a tribute was to be
paid to the deceased Field Marshal von Hindenburg. Every
member of the diplomatic corps was present. The hall was
filled. Goering was on the speakers’ stand in gay uniform with
medals all over his coat, in the high presiding officer’s chair,
literally joyful because he was so conspicuous in appearance.
Hitler sat a little below on the right of the chairman’s desk
with Von Papen on his right and Von Neurath next to Von
Papen. Other Cabinet officials were duly arranged according to
rank, nearly all in uniforms and with decorations much in
evidence.

Hitler was in his Brown Shirt uniform. He looked contented
and complacent : he was to deliver an oration to be radioed all

152 JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, 1934

over the world. The main floor was occupied by men who were
called members of the Reichstag. They were in no sense legisla-
tors, being appointees of Hitler, not one of them at any time
ever having voted against a wish of the Chancellor or ventured
to offer a bill for the consideration of his fellows. The Reichstag
members were in Brown Shirts, showing no signs of grief.
The diplomats were in their appropriate places, most of them
in oSicial and highly decorated garb, black gloves for the
few cutaway members, white gloves for those who had on the
costumes of Louis XIV’s time.

At the appropriate time, Goering arose and introduced the
Chancellor who took his place as speaker, all the house rising
and holding their right hands at a 45° angle until he acknow-
ledged the greeting. This was far more important than any
evidence of sorrow for the departure of the aged President.

The funeral oration took twenty-five minutes for delivery.
It was much better than I had expected, though there was no
tribute to the President or his services as a leader of his country.
All the emphasis was upon the military genius and service of
the hero of Tannenberg. A significant remark towards the end
was the claim that Von Hindenburg had brought the National
Socialists to power. When the address was over. Hitler went
to the first row of seats on the main floor and kissed the hands
of Von Hmdenburg’s daughters and shook hands with the son,
Colonel Oscar von Hindenburg There followed a solemn
strain of music and we all retired At 10.35 ^ took the train
for Tannenberg, East Prussia, where the first great German
victory of the World War was won in the autumn of 1914. I
went to bed promptly and so escaped the photographers who
came to the train seeking to take pictures.

August 7. Tuesday, Our train reached Hohenstein, a neat
little town two miles from the Tannenberg monument, about
II. We were driven promptly to the battlefield where Von
Hindenburg was to be buned at noon. The Spanish Ambassa-
dor and I sat down in the first row of the diplomatic seats. We
were greatly impressed with the scene : eight great brick towers
about sixty feet high with fires flaming from the top of each,
everlasting signals, I suppose, of the war soldier. The unknown

JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934 I53

soldier, buried under the Arc de Triomphe m Paris, is also
honoured by an unceasing flame So the Germans go the French
one better at Tannenberg, where the power of Imperial Russia
was broken.

The soldiers marched into place, company by company, keep-
ing marvellous goose-step, until some 3,000 men stood grim
in their places, in all kinds of uniforms, black, brown, grey and
blue. They were picked men from all the groups of German
soldiers Hitler, Goering and Goebbels were soon m evidence,
the first in his Brown Shirt with a sort of butcher knife hang-
ing by his side — the badge of honour for all Nazi soldiers.
Goering was in his aircraft uniform with medals all over his
front, Goebbels in civilian clothes with no medals or war signs,
although he is quite as war-hke as any of the rest. He was
spared from the front-line trenches of the World War by the
fact that he is club-footed and so walks like a lame person.

Von Hindenburg’s family, two daughters and one son, were
present. So also was Meissner, the President’s private secretary,
whose status is very doubtful now that his chief is dead, since
he is not known to be a Nazi, which he did not dare to be so
long as Von Hmdenburg was alive. It is said that he has de-
stroyed a copy of his chief’s will. No one knows but it is
strange that Von Hindenburg’s will is not to be found Com-
mon talk is that he decreed his remains be buried beside those
of his ancestors, through four generations, on the Neudeck
estate. There were several aged generals on the stand, includ-
ing Von Mackensen who conquered Rumania in the autumn of
1916. The belligerent Ludendorff was not present. He is re-
ported to have hated Von Hindenburg. He joined Hitler in
the Munich beer-hall putsch of 1923 which failed. Somehow
he and the Fuehrer broke and they hate each other.

At the proper moment a war chaplain read a sermon, war-like
in character. Then came Hitler who faced the coffin of the
deceased President and made a second address which closed
with the statement that Von Hindenburg’s remains were being
consigned to Valhalla. There was no appraisal of the old
leader’s character, his devotion to the Imperial cause of his
country as it once was Nor was there any reference to any of the
nine years of the Von Hindenburg presidency It was all military ,

154 JULY 9, 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, 1934

though there were no challenges to the French or English or
Americans who had decided the fate of the Hohenzollern Reich.

At the end of the services, Hitler repeated yesterday’s per-
formance and kissed the hands of the President’s daughters,
the whole audience looking on, many of them conscious of the
bitterness between the family of the deceased and the Fuehrer.
Hitler quickly mounted a huge flying machine and returned to
Berlin The diplomatic corps found its way again to its train
which started for Berlin about i o’clock. The weather was
beautiful and East Prussia looked very prosperous. The rains
had restored things.

As I went back to my berth, a young Dr. Berger, of the
German Foreign Office, was at the door. He was appointed
to serve me in any way I thought necessary. I needed no ser-
vice. I asked him to be seated and for an hour he tried to
entice me into criticism of the Hitler regime. I talked of history
and its false teaching in all great countries, especially ours
where the Civil War was concerned. He informed me that his
function in the Foreign Office was to study Austrian relations.
I still refused to enter into criticism of the Hitler relations to
Austria, thinking all the while that he had been ‘‘planted” on
me. There was an associate of his, young Prince von Wittgen-
stein, who talked less but served the same useless service of
page to the diplomats of our car I am sure I disappointed them
bitterly.

The train journeyed slowly for six hours across the Polish
Corridor. The idea seemed to be to show us the bedraggled
look of the country, the dirty towns and ragged farmer-folk,
more children than I have ever seen in such a short journey.
Berger made few comments but what was said rested on the
assumption that Poland properly belonged to Germany. He
showed me bridges and great industrial structures that were
built while Germans dominated the country — now all dilapi-
dated. There is no doubt that the Poles are a backward nation
politically and economically, but why should Germany feel that
she must govern them?

The moment the train crossed the Oder into German terri-
tory, the speed doubled. The countryside looked neat and
orderly. The towns were clean and the people about the railway

JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934 I55

stations moved quickly and were well dressed. There were no
filth and rags anywhere. No one could fail to note the differ-
ence. Night soon came on and we halted at the great Fried-
richstrasse station in Berlin at midnight I was glad to be
home again. It had been a revealing trip.

August 8 , Wednesday, A bit of talk at lunch today illustrates*
the kind of conversation one may have when not too many
people sit down at once. Von Wiegand said, when the talk
turned to European debts : “I invested my life-long savings m
German bonds. I have not received a dollar in return for years
and never expect a cent more.’’ That was not discussed at the
moment and Von Wiegand a little later added: ^'There are
two countries of Europe which I admire and associate together
in their payment of debts : England and Finland.” The former
had recently announced that she would not bother about pay-
ing interest on her four billion dollar debt to the U.S. and the
latter about the same time had paid in full an instalment on
her obligations.

It was a touchy subject for my friend, Sir Eric, and I said
at a moment when everybody at the table was quiet : Mr. von
Wiegand, do you dare compare so great a power as the British
Empire with so little a country as Finland in the presence of
the Ambassador? Everybody laughed and Sir Eric joined in a
good-humoured way. Nobody pressed the comparison further,
but there was no ignorance of the real point in anyone’s mind :
Europe’s general disposition not to pay or seriously try to pay
the people of the United States who loaned the Allied powers
$11,000,000,000 in 1917-1918 in order to help save themselves.

There was a good deal else said of similar trends but I cannot
repeat it here and now. Daily life here is full of the strange
conduct of civilized people.

August g, Thursday, At the request of Rabbi Lazaron of
Baltimore, Max Warburg, eminent Hamburg banker and
brother of Felix Warburg of New York, came to see me in the
Embassy. He showed the effects of his troubled life the last
year and now stands in danger of losing his life if he ever
allows his opinions to become known to authorities here.

156 JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I5 1934

He remained an hour. He thinks Rabbi Wise and Samuel
Untermyer of New York have done the Jews of both the
United States and Germany great harm by their craving for
publicity. He said Felix Warburg was of the same opinion.
Both these men are fully in sympathy with Colonel House m
his effoits to ease off the Jewish boycott and reduce the number
of Jews in high position in the United States.

I was glad to speak frankly with such a man. Before leaving
he indicated that he doubted the wisdom of James McDonald’s
activity in his position at Lausanne That has been my attitude
from the beginning. Warburg suggested that Lazaron, living
quietly in Berlin, might do more with the German Government
than McDonald, and I agree with him. Any man who would
take a big salary for such a service, all from people who give
the money for the relief of suffering fellows, is not apt to
appeal strongly to other givers, and McDonald has shown so
much self-esteem on different occasions that I fear these traits
have become too well known in Berlin official circles.

How few people really think of the service they can render
in high station ! Do not most officials think of how great they
are or ought to be considered, rather than the realities of life?
I have seen so many men and women here, the last twelve
months, of mediocre ability and knowledge, strutting day and
night and exploiting their countries’ meagre wealth, that I am
strongly inclined to leave such an atmosphere and make my
reasons public at home.

At I o’clock an American housing expert, studying conditions
in Europe, called. He had been in Rome and was captivated
by Mussolini He was later in Vienna to study housing work
done there after the World War, and then in Moscow to study
housing in the Soviet Union. Without having made any study
of Germany, he had become an enthusiastic sympathizer. What
he said about his building work and the general undertaking at
home was interesting enough, but he seemed to have lost his
balance. His complete acceptance of Hitler as a great states-
man revealed his mentality. I did not try to correct him. I
merely asked him : What do you think of a ' 'statesman” who
murders his opponents? The question puzzled him a little but
it did not seep into his mentality.

JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934 I57

August 10, Friday, At ii o^clock the mother of a former
student of mine in Chicago, who is becoming an American
citizen after my intervention against his forced return to
Germany in 1933, came to see me to read a letter from her
son which he had dared commit to the open mail. She was
glad to know he was well, even if unemployed. She read his
long letter and broke into tears as she described her terrorized
position. She is a Catholic, married to a Jewish journalist of
democratic faith whose son-in-law here is constantly m danger
of losing his life. She wept and wept. I consoled her the best
I could. She said she had money enough in Prague to take her
to the United States the moment her son obtained employment
He is a brilliant young doctor of philosophy from a German
university. I told her I would do what I could to help her son
but the immediate prospect was not good as her son was not a
full citizen and young American scholars would naturally take
precedence over him in college work.

Nothing, however, seemed to appease her sorrow. She broke
out : ‘This system here is terrible. You can imagine how much
we suffer and thousands of others likewise. There is no way
out but for someone to murder the great murderer who rules
us. Someone will do it, must do it.” As she retired from my
office, tears streaming from her eyes, I told her to wait, com-
pose herself and go upon the streets, always watched by the
Secret Police, in a more normal condition.

At 12, a new American correspondent came to introduce
himself. He immediately revealed his pro-Nazi sentiment in
respect to recent events in Vienna. Curious, but newspaper men
are human and there are rewards here and elsewhere for men
who preach the new doctrine to the outside world.

August II, Saturday, We left at 10 this morning for Koln
where my wife and the children wish to begin an auto trip up
the Rhine to Mainz. The road was good and the weather
delightful. We lunched at Eisenach and Martha and I went
through the old Luther Museum where many interesting pic-
tures, pamphlets, books and Luther letters were shown us. It
is peculiar that all this evidence of the great preacher s demand
for religious freedom is still exhibited in a country and a region

158 JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, 1934

where the Hitler-Rosenberg paganism prevails. From Eisenach
we drove on to a beautiful resort town near Kassel where we
spent the night in a most comfortable hotel. It cost only some
five marks each.

August 13. Monday. We reached Frankfurt today where we
looked into the Consulate for a while and then Martha and I
wandered through Goethe’s home where the guide told rather
filthy stories about the great artist’s early life. Our next stop
was for lunch, then to Heidelberg where the wonderful castle
entertained us for an hour or so. From Heidelberg, we drove
over a good road towards Stuttgart in medieval Wurttemberg
where ancient villages and monasteries revealed much of the
age that has long passed. I have never seen better revelations
of medieval Germany than in this fertile, prosperous country.
We reached Stuttgart at 7 o’clock and had a good dinner m a
modem hotel. Then I found my way to the railway station
and took a sleeper for Berlin. The family remained for another
week in southern Germany, Austria and Hungary.

August 14. Tuesday. I was back at my task at 10 o’clock At
4.30 Albert Lepawsky, University of Chicago instructor, and his
friend, Howard Mumford Jones, came in to explain how a
Nazi marcher had stepped out of ranks the night before and
struck Lepawsky in the face for not saluting the Hakenkreuz
flag. The blow was insulting enough, but not serious otherwise.

Lepawsky said he was bringing the story to us on a silver
platter and thought I ought to hurry at once to the Foreign
Office and demand an apology. He did not wish to see the
offender punished. He had not hit hard enough. I reminded
him that punishment was the first thing the government would
order and that as he was not hurt, I would advise no publicity
since we had not had such a thing happen since January. He
was not pleased exactly. The pair went away with instructions
to lay the facts, under oath, before the Consul-General.

August jj. Wednesday. I called at 12 o’clock on Ambassador
Frangois-Poncet to leam whether he knew anything more defi-
nite than I did about the war-like purposes of the Hitler regime

JULY 9, 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934 159

m order that I might write President Roosevelt a letter that
imght not be misleading. As to facts about Nazi rearmament,
the French cite, one milhon and a half trained soldiers, an
ample supply of small arms, and the avowed purpose of carry-
ing the pan-German annexations into effect at the first possible
opportunity. Frangois-Poncet was, as he has been since the
date of my arrival here a year ago, fully convinced that France
is to be attacked and Alsace-Lorraine, Austria and western
Poland to be annexed. He reported some evidence of new air-
fields in Mecklenburg, a larger number of heavy flying machines,
and the expectation that next winter the Saar terntory will be
the occasion for war. The Ambassador was most cordial. I
walked back to my office, having taken a taxi to the Branden-
burger Tor, and walked thence to the French Embassy to
escape the vigilance of the German Secret Police, though I
doubt whether I was successful. Nazi Germany is certainly
watchful.

At 4 30 Colonel Wuest, our Military Attach^ here, called
and reported the discovery of a new and heavily equipped air-
field as he flew a few days before to Bremen. The German
officer in the machine, as they flew westward, affected not to
see what he had observed and Wuest asked no questions. This
only supports the French evidence. Colonel Wuest is a good
man with many contacts. He knows German well, and is watch-
ful of his opportunities, but the military appeal is strong and
he instinctively approves of the army dnlls and demonstrations
— contradictory as these are to the interests of the United States

August 16. Thursday. Young Baron von Blomberg, American-
born adopted member of General von Blomberg’s family
here (the General being the Nazi Secretary of War), came to
see me this morning at 1 1 o’clock I was a little shy of him in
view of reliable reports we have had about General von Blom-
berg’s share in the June 30 terror and in the elevation of Hitler
to Von Hindenburg’s post without any constitutional or lawful
authority to cover it. Young Von Blomberg reported his
friendly relations with Assistant Secretary Phillips of the State
Department and showed strong opposition to the methods of
June 30, which I thought was a bid for frank statements from

l6o JULY 9, 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934

me which he would get to his patron, and thus enable the gov-
ernment to make out a case against my partisanship, if it could
be called such.

He then remarked that Nazi propaganda in the United
States did Germany harm. I let him know I agreed fully, but
gave no names here responsible for such performances, like Ivy
Lee and the rest. Then he said General von Blomberg was
much against propaganda and that he was urging the dismissal
of Dr. Goebbels. He did not quite say that his kinsman in the
Cabinet was urging the abolition of the Propaganda Ministry,
but I inferred as much. The young fellow went away talking
favourably of the foreign press opposition to all ruthlessness
here It was a rather questionable mission, if such it was.

August 77. Fnday. Mr McMaster, Quaker relief represen-
tative who maintains an office here and formerly distributed
many millions of American dollars for the relief of German
sufferers from 1919 to 1921, reported the difficulties of his
people and his efforts, on all proper occasions, to procure the
release of innocent Germans from prison He had many stories
to tell, but they are similar to others already recorded and so
I do not repeat them. He offered his service in cases in which
I cannot intervene in any way.

One case I called to his attention : An innocent man now in
a concentration camp had been invited by the president of Dart-
mouth College to lecture there. Charles A. Beard, president
last year of the American Historical Association, had wired to
ask whether I would convey the invitation to the prisoner. I
asked Consul Geist to sound out the Secret Police here. He
did so and reported that any such invitation extended from
the United States, if known to the government, would cause
rough treatment to the prisoner. I wired Beard that we must
await events.

Dr. Henry Smith Leiper, representative of the Federation
of Churches, came at 12 o’clock. He told of the attitude of
American Protestants and said the representatives of all these
churches are meeting in a few days near Copenhagen to discuss
international religious problems. He reported that the German
Reichsbishop Muller had opposed any German Protestants

JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934 161

attending and that the government had refused visas to German
preachers who wished to attend. The federation people had
disliked this and the German Protestants were greatly offended.
Eight or ten had decided to go to a German village a few miles
from the Danish border and there consult with their fellow
Christians of the outside world. Such action would endanger
their freedom, perhaps their lives.

Professor M. McMeyer of the University of Boston, who
has travelled all about Germany, reported today prosperity
everywhere and almost unanimous enthusiasm for Hitler and
his regime. The June 30 killings had not affronted anybody,
according to him. There was, he said, free discussion and the
same old German Gemutlichkeit he had known years before.
Has he simply fallen for the Nazi propaganda and will he go
back to Boston to argue for the strange medievalism which
has escaped his attention? He is a Protestant preacher and
teacher of naive mentality unless I myself am of strange and
perverse mental traits !

August 18, Saturday, Mr. John Garrett, of the old B. & O.
railroad family in Baltimore, a former Ambassador to Rome,
called to pay his respects and to talk a little about Europe.
Although his inherited social point of view is so different from
mine, his assessment of German life today is the same as mine.
I am sorry my family is away, else I would have given him
the expected dinner. We closed our conversation by my raising
the interesting point about his grandfather’s contribution to the
saving of the American union of states by the building of the
B. & O. railroad to Chicago just before i860 and the manage-
ment of the road during the war against Virginia and the South.
He was delighted that I knew the facts — an advantage, for
once in this atmosphere, of knowing history.

At 12.30 Henry Mann called with Mr. Jolles, vice-president
of the National City Company, New York, who came to talk
about the possibility of American credits to Germany. I could
see no safe way. There is no evidence that Hitler, Goering or
Goebbels has the slightest compunction about non-payment of
any kind of debt to the United States, and these men have the
decisive power here. Much as I dislike to have the United

F

102 JULY 9, 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, 1934

States lose its cottoiij copper and meat markets, worth hun-
dreds of millions a year, I carmot advise bankers to loan money
here. It would simply mean a sacrifice of American savings, as
things now look. They went away depressed but in agreement.

Captain Crockett, Assistant Military Attache here, gave a
dinner tonight. It was a nice little party, though nothing
worthwhile was said. To repeat what I have said before : Army
and Navy Attaches here, and I think all over Europe, are
utterly unequal to their supposed functions. They simply have
never received good training, except in drill and tactics. They
may know a little formal history, but they really do not grasp
the social and economic problems in countries to which they
are accredited. Nor are they clever enough to spy on German
military performances. Spying is really what governments
expect in such fields.

August ig. Sunday. I was driven out to Ambassador Frangois-
Ponget’s country mansion on the shore of Wannsee, where
all wealthy Germans like to have summer residences unless
they can afibrd an estate in Bavaria. The Ambassador’s man-
sion is a beautiful building and the lake lies just in the rear.

Frangois-Poncet has no better knowledge than others, but
he is very uneasy and with some justification. Germany may
readily venture into a war about the Saar Territory next winter
or spring, especially if Japan breaks loose at the same time.
According to reports. Hitler has sent word to Frangois-Poncet
that he will never see him again. This is on account of the
charge that he was conspiring last spring with Roehm and
von Schleicher to overthrow the Chancellor. This angers the
Ambassador extremely.

In view of repeated attacks by Hitler and Goering upon all
democratic and parliamentary governments, we discussed a pos-
sible retort sometime. He had no suggestions. I intimated that
he, the British Ambassador and I ought possibly to ask our
recall simultaneously if attacks and charges of conspiracy were
repeated. He did not commit himself. I am beginning to feel
that we ought to sound out our governments on the subject of
a concerted withdrawal. It might temporarily prevent war if
done properly.

JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934 163

After this conversation the party took to a boat and spent
an hour on the Wannsee. It was surprisingly cold for August.
Having no overcoat, I wrapped myself in a large red shawl,
and Madame Frangois-Poncet said she would like to have a
picture. There was fortunately no photographer on board and
so I escaped. Finally, I could politely leave and I was glad to
be home and quiet again.

August 20. Monday. Herr Hecke of the Reichsbank brought
me a curious pamphlet recently published here by a philosopher
who describes all of German philosophy from Immanuel Kant
to Friedrich Nietzsche as merely the prelude to the social
philosophy which underlies the Nazi regime. The second part
summarizes Hitler’s social attitude and political purposes ; in
the third, Roosevelt’s work and purposes are analyzed. Accord-
ing to the author and the bank official who gave me the pam-
phlet, Hitler and Roosevelt have the same ideals and purposes
and both synchronize with the general German philosophy
from Kant to Hegel to Nietzsche.

I was earnestly besought to send the pamphlet to the Presi-
dent. The banker was typically naive. I agreed, however, to
send the absurd pamphlet to the State Department but ex-
pressed the fear that Mr. Roosevelt would not be able to read
it. Imagine such a man as this in high position in the German
Reichsbank !

Mr. Francis Hickman of New Orleans called. He wished an
interview with Hitler which I did not care to ask for, especially
as the Chancellpr is in Bavaria. I teased him a little about
Huey Long, the Louisiana “Hitler.” Hickman gave me the
impression that he really wishes to see some kind of dictator-
ship in America. Perhaps I ought to have arranged an inter-
view with the German dictator so that he could publish
his story in the United States and see what the public would
say.

August 22. Wednesday. I went with my family to the famous
Passion Play at Oberammergau, escorted by the mayor who
had kindly sent us tickets. The mayor gave the Hitler greet-
ing whenever he met any acquaintance on the street. We were

164 JULY 9, 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934

all seated together in the reserved section but I think few if any
of our neighbours knew who we were.

The play during the morning portrayed the early life of
Jesus and the Old Testament prophecies and scenes showing
what the Christian churches have always claimed were the con-
necting links between the Old and New Testaments. I saw no
Jews present. There were 6,000 people in the beautiful hall It
is open at the end where the stage is located, and one gazes
constantly upon a most beautiful mountain scene. It is a won-
derful setting.

The chief actor is Lang, son of the man who gave the play
its present form some thirty years ago. The Lang family are
the masters of the town, Oberammergau having normally 3,000
inhabitants whose main income each year is from visitors,
foreign and German, who go there to see the Jesus tragedy. I
think Lang is an excellent actor and the choir which sings or
recites interludes in a grand style is impressive.

At 2 o’clock we took our places again in the great hall and
the tragedy slowly moved to its culmination * the betrayal by
Judas, the trial of Jesus and the awful scene of the executions
on the cross, with law officers climbing short ladders to the
crucified individuals and beating them before their deaths
When Jesus was tried before the angry Jewish court, a well-
dressed German, looking very solemn, said to me: ‘‘Es ist
unser Hitler.” Ida Horne, a distant kinswoman of mine, sitting
in another part of the hall, told me as we came out together :

woman near me said, as Judas received his thirty pieces
of silver, ^Es ist Roehm !’ ” I suspect half the audience, the
German part, considers Hitler as Germany’s Messiah.

About 6.30 I took third class passage to Munich which
enables me to get natural reactions of German people towards
the existing regime. It was a crowded train but, like all others, I
had a clean and comfortable seat. The people, however, seemed
to know little of what happens in Germany, though a school
teacher and a peasant woman, both educated so that they spoke
good German, referred favourably to Hitler. They said nothing
of his terrorist conduct. There was much frank talk on this
journey, as I had observed last year on my third class journey
from Dresden to Berlin. While Bavarian small town and

JULY 05 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, 1034 165

peasant folk have good schools for the young people, they are
reported to be the most simple and naive element of the
German Reich.

August 23, Thursday. My friend Louis Brownlow of the
Rockefeller Foundation and the University of Chicago called
and reported many interesting things about the university and
its troubles. Brownlow knows American urban problems as well
as anyone in the country. He is talking with officials of German
cities to see if the Nazi regime is neglecting the city housing
projects, where administration was particularly efficient, which
had prevailed here for half a century or more. He knows many
prominent pre-Hitler leaders.

In the afternoon Ivy Lee came with his smooth young son.
The young son, last winter, thought a speech of mine implied
criticism of Fascist Europe, which it did most gently and in-
directly. Later I learned of the elder Lee’s relations with the
German Government.

Today the old man looked broken and in spite of talk about
his cure I am sure his health is very poor He has made his^
millions the last twenty years and now the world knows how it
was done. I talked frankly with him and he turned red in the
face more than once He asked if I had reported on him to
Washington. He hoped I could write something favourable to
Secretary Phillips.

He then said; ‘‘Ilgner of the Carl Schurz Foundation here
said you were an anti-Nazi, or perhaps merely against the
Foundation.” I answered that I was opposed to all propaganda,
but had urged the Carl Schurz people last spring to go on with
their work if it remained simply cultural and permitted no
propaganda. Ilgner wished to see me, according to Lee. I told
him to extend an invitation. Ilgner is head of the great I. G.
Farben corporation in Germany.

The Lees went away, kindly asking about my family and
their sojourn in Austria. It is only another of the thousands of
cases where love of money ruins men’s lives. I cannot say a
commendatory word about him to the State Department.

August 24. Friday. Mrs Sinclair Lewis, whose ability as a

l66 JULY 9, 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934

writer and artist equals that of her famous husband, called
today at 1 1 and talked for half an hour about a plan of hers
to study and describe the present German socio-philosophical
system, if one may call it a system. She impressed me most
favourably.

A little after she left. Dr. Dieckhoff paid the conventional
call after his vacation in Switzerland, where he has the safe
retreat of his father-in-law’s residence. I thought also that he
wished to hear me talk a little about the strange events that
had occurred while he had been away, on June 30 and July 25.
We had talked frankly, being rather intimate acquaintances,
for a few minutes when Mrs. Lewis called from her hotel, the
Adlon, and said she had just received an order from the Secret
Police to leave the country in twenty-four hours ! “What shall
I do?” she asked. I said : Go at once to Acting Consul-General
Geist. She thanked me and hung up the phone receiver.

I turned to Dieckhoff and said : Did you hear that? He said :
“No.” I was almost sure he had. I explained and added that
this would make a nation-wide sensation. He agreed and said
he would do all he could to restrain the Secret Police. We both
recognized that whether Mrs. Lewis had given cause or not,
her expulsion from Germany would advertise everything she
had said all over the democratic world.

August 28. Tuesday. Dr. Max Ilgner of the great 1 . G. Farben
Company and president of the Carl Schurz Verein called by
appointment this morning ostensibly to talk about the Verein
functions. He had reported to Ivy Lee that I was very un-
friendly to the Verein. Ilgner impressed me as unconscious of
the real opportunities of his organization. There was httle said,
however, and I did not press him to explain the propaganda
work which I know he represents. He did not mention Ivy Lee
who received a large fee from his concern.

He did talk a good deal about a business trip he is undertak-
ing to Manchuria where he said his company had bought
400,000 bushels of soy beans. I suspect he is on a mission to
exchange poison gases and explosives for Japanese products.
Perhaps I am irnfair, but I could not avoid this drift of thought
when he talked so freely and profusely about the beans.

JULY 9 , 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, I934 167

August 31, Friday. Professor Vernon McKenzie of the Uni-
versity of Washington came to talk of his interviews in Warsaw
and Prague. He said: ‘‘The Poles are not planning any
annexations at the expense of Russia or Czechoslovakia. They
made their pact with Germany because France was so exacting
and arbitrary in everything, and in the hope of making peace
in the Corridor possible. I am convinced they have succeeded.
The French are exasperated.’’

As to Prague, he continued, “There is great anxiety lest Ger-
many make war on Austria, which would at once force the
Czechoslovaks into war. Otto Strasser, brother of the Gregor
Strasser recently killed here, said to me he would see to it that
the Fuehrer is killed in six or eight months. That looked to
me exceedingly unwise to report if he really meant it. But
Strasser is inveterately hostile and I look for some efforts in
that direction.”

I went home to get ready to journey to Dahlem by taxi, to
lunch with Dr. Dieckhoff. It was a cold day and I was a little
uncomfortable in the draughty dining room The company was
small and all German. Nothing of confidential nature was men-
tioned until I was about to leave, when Dieckhoff gladly in-
formed me that the Foreign Office had at last persuaded Hitler
to stop hostile treatment of the Jews. He hoped that the
people of the United States would come gradually to think
better of Germany and to allow treaty negotiations in Washing-
ton between the two countries. He added that Von Neurath
had pressed the matter since my return last spring

I was surprised and I did not inform Dieckhoff that a few
days before I had received a copy of formal instructions to
the Nazi Party that they must refuse all association with Jews,
must not, if lawyers, assist Jews in any way, and, if clerks in
Jewish stores, must not wear their Party badges. And the
“wicked race” must in no public places be recognized or allowed
to associate with the Aryans. These are the instructions that
have been before the Party for a year and a half. This copy
bore the name of Rudolf Hess, personal adjutant to Hitler,
and the date was August i6, 1934. It was proof that while
Hitler supposedly promised the Foreign Office to do what its
wisest officials asked, he allowed his most intimate and trusted

l68 JULY 9, 1934 TO SEPTEMBER I, ^934

counsellor to do the opposite of what he promised If this were
the first time a promise of this sort had been made to me, I
might think there was some error and that the new order was
simply the old one renewed by some inside extremists* But it
looks real Sometime when I see Von Neurath or Dieckhoflf,
I shall show the new order.

September i. Saturday. Professor McKenzie, Professor Lin-
gelbach and E. T. Colton, Y M C.A. representative from New
York, lunched with me. The conversation was most frank and
searching. McKenzie told of his visit to West German towns
where he learned of four or five great underground aircraft
hangars, the number of heavy aircraft now ready for war, and
the amount of poison gas they could put over Pans or London
in two or three hours Lingelbach, who was quite pro-German
during the World War period, and Colton, who gave me a
most sympathetic picture of the Nazi regime when I came here
in July, 1933, took the story sadly and showed great sorrow
that Germany has behaved in a way to make the United States
more generally hostile than in 1917. I gave some stones of the
treatment of innocent individuals which only made the feeling
more unanimous Nobody came to the defence of other coun-
tries that are arming * France, England, the United States and
Japan, We parted rather discouraged. It is such an unwise
world and war means such terrible disaster.

V

September 5, to December 21^ igj 4

September 5 Wednesday Somewhere today, either at the
British Embassy or in the office, I heard another story of the
intimacy of General von Schleicher and the French Ambassador
all last winter The informant, recently in Paris, says there is
no doubt of Monsieur Frangois-Poncet’s share in the Roehm
plan to overthrow Hitler last June. I doubted any conspiracy,
but felt sure there was political intrigue going on in the hope
of overthrowing a regime which all Frenchmen think is aiming
directly at the destruction of the French Republic I hear con-
stantly stories that certain eminent Nazis were listed to be killed
July I. The list has never been published.

The British Ambassador, as usual, asked me many questions
today but gave no useful answers to questions about the Far
East which I put to him. He said he had not stopped in London
on his way to Berlin He attends the ceremony in honour
of Hitler’s ‘‘elevation” next week. He told me that he had
read the Nuncio’s manuscript address and recommended
omission of one paragraph which flattered the President. I
understand the French and the Italian Ambassadors are to be
present.

September 6. Thursday. A busy day preparing an address I
am to make at Bremen Sunday afternoon. Last evening, Orme
Wilson, to whom I submitted parts of the first draft of the
address, expressed great fear that my account of belligerent
attitudes in Europe would make a sensation, perhaps bring a
rebuke from the State Department. I submitted a copy to one
of the American correspondents and he hoped I would not
omit any passages bearing on international relations ; he thought
great good might be done at Geneva. I have restated a few
sentences and given final form to the paper, and I expect to
take the risk of delivering it as written. I shall read it in English

F2

170 SEPTEMBER 5 , 1034 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934

as I have no time to put it into German. I shall give a copy
tomorrow to the Foreign Office here, also to Washington.

September 7 Friday Mr. Gannon, vice president of the
Chase National Bank of New York, came to learn my attitude
about the German debt problem. He had talked long with Dr.
Schacht and was to see him again. Gannon lives in London,
Paris and Berlin and tries to arrange loans for German pur-
chases of cotton, copper and oil, short term loans at 4 per cent
of which there are now some $600,000,000 outstanding in New
York banks. I told Gannon that it was my opinion that all
European peoples thought the debts due the United States
should not be paid at all. Schacht would pay in order to con-
tinue exports but would not even try to pay if exports direct
to the United States were not greatly increased.

Gannon described a complicated scheme whereby loans might
be continued with safety. He would present this to Schacht
before leaving for London. I frankly told Gannon that I was
not expert enough in financial matters to catch his points in
conversation and asked for a written memorandum. He said
he would send me one as soon as he reached London and hoped
I would write the State Department in support of his plan.

September 8 , Saturday. I took the train, second class, at 9
o’clock for Bremen. The car was a little cold the first two hours, ‘
but I managed to keep in the sunshine and fairly comfortable.
German cars are not heated until weather is really cold.

I sat next to a neat-looking fellow passenger who was quite
desirous of talking freely. He said he was born and reared in
Germany. He now lives in New York. He had spent the sum-
mer in Italy, Germany and Russia and he seemed to have made
good contacts and learned much. He was troubled and shocked
at the Hitler ruthlessness and cruelty. He thought the German
people did not approve, but were helpless. When another well-
dressed fellow passenger who sat opposite me indicated a dis-
position to talk, the New Yorker asked him frankly how he
liked the regime. The reply was enthusiastic i * 'Hitler 1st unser
grosser Fuhrer; wer sind uberali fur ihn, und diese Franzosen,
die uns umklammern, ach ! wir werden diesem bosen Feinde ein

SEPTEMBER 5 , 1034 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934

Ende machen!” (‘‘Hitler is our great Leader; we are for him
everywhere; and these French who encircle us, ach! we will
make an end of these evil enemies !”) All the world, he went
on, is hostile. He had fought in the last war and was ready any
day to go to war with France again. He was certain the Ger-
mans would make an end of France the next time.

The New Yorker said little more. The German left the train
at some town about halfway between Berlin and Bremen. Two
officers of the German Reichswehr, returning from Nurnberg,
came into the car, but I did not care to begin conversation with
them ; and the New Yorker also kept quiet.

After luncheon I walked about the old part of Bremen and,
finding an old bookshop near the canal, bought a volume of
Macaulay’s Essays: on Frederick the Great, John Bunyan and
Barere, the French evil genius. I had failed to take a book to
read during the idle hours of my journey.

September g. Sunday. At 12.30 I was asked to speak briefly
before the assembled Y.M.C.A folk. I was greeted with more
enthusiasm than I had expected. In the afternoon there was a
gathering of some 5,000 people from all parts of Germany
and western Europe. I was embarrassed because I had expected
an educated audience of 400 or 500. However, I read my
address, A Troubled World, and received applause as if all had
understood me. What I said was directed against war prepara-
tions and increasing commercial barriers.

I climbed into my berth at 10 p.m. and travelled slowly via
Hanover to Berlin where I arrived at 7 a.m. and took a taxi
to the house, not feeling too well, for sleep in a narrow Ger-
man berth is next to impossible. I read Macaulay’s Essq;ys until
my eyes were too tired. His Barere essay is a terrible criticism
of one of the sinister officials of the Robespierre regime. It is
probably correct, but one may infer that part of the great
historian’s motive was a dislike of France and condemna-
tion of the “wild democracy” of the revolutionary period in
France.

September 10. Monday. I had an appointment with Wallace
Deuel, new correspondent of the Chicago Daily News, this

172 SEPTEMBER 5 , 1934 DECEMBER 21 , 1934

afternoon. Deuel is succeeding Junius Wood, an exceedingly
able news gatherer. The former has been in Rome two years
and knows the European tangle well, but not the German
language. He wished to give me what he had learned the last
two weeks and then get light on the characters of Hitler,
Goering and Goebbels and their supporting chiefs.

The fifteen or twenty American newspaper correspondents
here are by far the cleverest information-finders I know. I
think they are cleverer than the French and British spies, who
are sometimes a bit too shrewd, for they endanger the lives of
Germans who give them information occasionally. I gave Deuel
what facts and leads I thought fair and safe to give. He im-
presses me as a good man, but so unsympathetic with the Mus-
solini autocracy that it will be difficult for him to be entirely
poised in his work here, where Hitler is equally ruthless and
curiously repulsive to anyone with English or American back-
ground.

September ii. Tuesday Oechsner of the United Press and
Webb Miller, London representative of the same news service,
gave me today much light on the publicity methods of the
Goebbels propaganda office. Miller was more depressed at Ger-
man autocracy methods than Oechsner. They report the estab-
lishment of a new Secret Police unit assigned to catch every
foreigner’s opinion over telephones and in hotels.

September is. Wednesday. At 12.30 I went to the Presi-
dential palace on the Wilhelmstrasse, in full evening dress, to
pay formal respects to the new self-made President, Adolf
Hitler. Some days ago the Spanish Ambassador came to me to
indicate that he felt he would have to go, although he disliked
to think of shaking hands with him. I agreed that we could
not stay away as we had done in the Nurnberg case It was a
government affair. I had also talked with the British Ambassa-
dor on September 6 and he was of the same mind, though
Hitler was most repulsive to him.

When I arrived, the whole yard was surrounded by soldiers
stiffly at attention. The palace was also duly guarded. All the
diplomatic corps was present including the Nuncio who has

SEPTEMBER 5 , I 934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934 ^73

been ill m the hospital for a month. The Nuncio is the senior
member of the corps and it is his function to read the formal
greetings on such occasions. Monsieur Frangois-Poncet, in per-
fect garb and with medals and ribbons to show his distinction,
was next in order to the Nuncio. Young Berard, attache of the
French Embassy, had told me in August that Hitler had de-
clared he would never again see the French Ambassador. That
would have been tantamount to his dismissal if Hitler had
adhered to it. There was no sign of such trouble today. They
shook hands with seeming cordiality.

When the corps, some fifty in all, were properly arranged
around the reception salon, Hitler, Von Neurath, Von Bulow
and Von Bassewitz came into the room in full dress, and the
Nuncio read his conventional document congratulating the
enemy of Rome, political as well as religious, upon his marvel-
lous success in assuming the place of Von Hindenburg. There
were some hints and warnings against war, which everybody
here believes to be the main purpose of the present regime, I
certainly agree.

Hitler replied in German avowing his good will to all the
outside world and his one objective : peace. When he finished,
he advanced in perfect form, bowed and shook hands with the
Papal representative He might as well have embraced him,
as far as formal behaviour went. Then Hitler came to Frangois-
Poncet and they appeared to be even more friendly. For a
minute or two they gossiped together in German in a most
amiable fashion; but I was not near enough to understand
what was said. Then the Chancellor addressed Cerruti, Italian
Ambassador, but there was less evidence of warmth. The Italian
has not the social savoir faire of the Frenchman. He cannot
hide his dislikes and he hates the Nazi regime, as his wife, a
distinguished Jewess from Hungary, also hates it.

When Hitler came to the Japanese Ambassador who stood
on my right he made a point of thanking him for his attendance
at Nurnberg and for a speech which he said the Ambassador
made. Nobody misunderstood this: it was intended as a re-
buke to the French, Italian, English and Spanish representa-
tives and myself who had declined to attend the show both this
year and last. As the happy Fuehrer extended his hand to me

174 SEPTEMBER 5 , 1934 TO DECEMBER 21 , 1934

I reminded him quickly of the peace note in his speech to us
and said that it would be approved in the United States,
especially by our President, who had asked me to say to him
that these peace speeches always interested him. Hitler bowed
pointedly and talked for a moment as though he were a pacifist,
a type he always damns in his public statements. As he passed
on to the Spanish and British Ambassadors, I felt a little
badly because he seemed not to have understood my ironical
meaning. He assumed that I actually believed what he had
said !

I have never seen Hitler quite so happy-looking as while
he went down the line greeting the representatives of all foreign
countries. Neither Von Neurath nor Von Bulow showed
any sense of shame for their country. We all adjourned about
I o’clock and drove to our homes, wondering as ever whether
the most medieval regime known to Europe can endure.

Newspaper people who came in the afternoon were very
anxious to get my impressions of the reception I could say
nothing more than that the keynote was peace and that all the
Germans seemed happy,

September 14, Friday. Mattie and I went to the great opera
house at Charlottenburg, as guests of the Foreign Office, to
attend the opening opera: Tannhauser, Hitler, Von Papen,
Goebbels and Generals von Blomberg and Von Fritsch were
together in the old royal stalls Next to us sat Ambassador and
Madame Cerruti. Across the hall sat Ambassador and Madame
Frangois-Poncet. The boxes were all occupied by diplomatic
people and the house was crowded. The music began promptly
after the German manner. At the first intermission all the main
floor people rose, faced the Hitler box and stood for a time
giving the Hitler greeting. This was done again at the second
intermission The vast audience including the actors and singers
were enthusiastic about the Chancellor’s presence, more, I was
told, than was evidenced when the Hohenzollerns used to sit
in the royal box.

Von Papen, in spite of what happened to him on June 30
and all he told me, stood during the intermission talking with
Goebbels whom he had denounced to me and who, according

SEPTEMBER 5 , I 934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934 ^75

to Von Papen’s son, had tried to have the Vice-Chancellor
killed. Curious facts. Von Papen hates Goebbels, Von Blom-
berg had let me know that he hated Goebbels and would
like to see him dismissed. Von Fritsch hates Vom Blomberg,
and both were reported to have hated Hitler before June 30.
Now all of them sit together and appear to be intimate
friends !

Madame Cerruti came to me during one of the intermissions
and after observing the pretended diplomatic intimacies, said :
‘‘You recall what I said at your table June 29?” I had not for-
gotten. Of course the Cerrutis know I have no more liking for
their dictator than I do for the German autocrat. As I medi-
tate upon the problems and the ills of our civilization, I wonder
whether the United States should not recall me. I would be
willing to go.

September 16. Sunday We had dinner with Orme Wilson,
whose chief guest was Counsellor Marriner of our Paris Em-
bassy, returning from a trip to Warsaw where he had been
trying to assess the Polish policy towards France and the League.
He is highly protocol. We attended the dinner so as not to
appear offish, but there was no real discussion, no new informa-
tion about any subject It would have been far better to have
dined at home and read a good book, in case one could find a
good book these days.

September ig, Wednesday. I called on Dr. Schacht, on re-
quest of our Secretary of State, at 1 1 o’clock. He was very cor-
dial. When we had greeted each other, I said very frankly that
the relations of our two countries could hardly improve so long
as everybody in the United States was convinced that Germany
was making ready to precipitate another war. What good can
I do in Berlin if all Germany is moving towards a world or
European conflict? If I am to fail here, would it not be better
to return home and stay? He was a little stunned and replied;
“You must not retire; it would do harm ” But what can one,
of my way of thinking, do in a country where the atmosphere
is so disagreeable?

He then said . “All the world is combining against us ; every-

176 SEPTEMBER 5, I934 TO DECEMBER 21 , I934

body is attacking Germany and trying to boycott her.” Yes, I
replied, but you know the way to stop such things is not to arm
to the teeth. If you went to war and won, you would lose more
than you could gain. Everybody would lose. When he declared
that the Germans are not arming so intensively, I said • Last
January and February Germany bought from American aircraft
people $1,000,000 worth of high class war flying machinery
and paid in gold. He looked embarrassed and was about to
deny it, but as he saw I was going to produce a document,
he said: “Yes, I suppose you know all about it, but we must
arm.”

He then acknowledged that the Hitler Party is absolutely
committed to war, and the people, too, are ready and willing.
Only a few government officials are aware of the dangers and
are opposed He concluded: “But we shall postpone it ten
years. Then it may be we can avoid war ”

I reminded him of his Bad Eilsen speech some two weeks ago
and said: I agree with you about commercial and financial
matters in the main. But why do you not, when you speak
before the public, tell the German people they must abandon a
war attitude? He replied: “I dare not say that. I can only
speak on my special subjects.”

How, then, can German people ever learn the real dangers of
war if nobody ever presents that side of the question? He once
more emphasized his opposition to war and added that he had
used his influence with Hitler, “a very great man,” he inter-
jected, to prevent war. I said : The German papers printed what
I said at Bremen about commercial relations between our coun-
tries, but not a word about the terrible effects and barbarism of
war. He acknowledged that and talked very disapprovingly of
the Propaganda Ministry which suppresses everything it dis-
likes. He added as I was leaving : “You know a party comes
into ofiice by propaganda and then cannot disavow it or stop
it.”

On my return to the Chancery, I left my car standing near
the Brandenburger Tor and walked into the British Embassy
on the Wilhelmstrasse. Sir Eric Phipps was in his office and I
talked fifteen minutes about the accumulating evidence in our
office of Germany’s intense war activity. His consular officials

SEPTEMBER 5 , I 934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934 177

seem not to have given him information we have received from
ours, especially from Stuttgart and Munich He pretended to be
surprised when I gave him the facts about German purchases
of aircraft from the United States in the last six months.

I also let him know that Schacht had acknowledged to me
the war purposes of the Nazi party. My talk with Phipps was
confidential and preparatory to future conversations with him if
President Roosevelt tries again to bring American arms manu-
facture under government control. My hope was to enlist him
in a move to persuade his government to set up an investigation
like that of Senator Nye, now causing so much excitement in all
countries. Although I knew England had protested against the
exposure of the corrupt practices of its arms manufacturers, I
bluntly alluded to the good effects of the Nye exposures. He
agreed, though he did not indicate a desire to say anything
further. The arms manufacturers over the world are the cause
of most of this trouble in Europe.

At 2 30 I went as guest of the Foreign Office to the Kroll
Opera House to hear discussions of the great road work now
going on in Germany. A number of Germans were present, as
also the English and French Ambassadors. It turned out to be
merely an occasion for Von Neurath to explain German foreign
policy, “and peaceful purposes. TheFuehrer desires peace above
all else.” The idea was to explain Germany’s attitude towards
Russian admission to the League and the forthcoming plebiscite
in the Saar Territory where the people are to decide January 1 1,
I believe, whether they will return to the fatherland or remain
under League of Nations rule.

All the members of the diplomatic corps were present and
remained in their places until Von Neurath had finished. When
the translator began to give English translations, the British
and French Ambassadors retired. A litde later the Italian and I
left. We had had enough of it. Von Neurath was not bad, but
no one believed his assertions about the peace purposes of the
present regime.

September 24. Monday. The Spanish Ambassador came to
tell me that he intended to attend the Bucheberg Thanksgiving
festival on September 30, mainly because he has been absent

178 SEPTEMBER 5, 1934 TO DECEMBER 2 1, 1934

from so many demonstrations and propaganda shows the last
few months. I told him I had declined already and could not
reverse my decision. These propaganda affairs are so naive and
even repulsive that I cannot endure them unless it is obvious
that my ofEcial position requires it. I think I shall explain these
absences to Secretary Hull and get his reaction.

September 26, Wednesday. The Belgian Minister, returned
from his long summer vacation, called to talk over the German
problems and the Hitler menace. He was certain that no im-
mediate war is coming, but that war is the first object of the
present regime, war not upon France or Belgium, but upon
Austria and Czechoslovakia. “That is the Hitler objective and
it is much safer than the western drive which would unite
France, England and Belgium.”

It is plain that the Belgian and French Governments are not
in harmony; the English and Belgians seem closer together.
He was very curious to know whether there is any prospect of
the United States entering the League of Nations while Roose-
velt is President. I could not give him any information, except
that I personally favour American entrance and that I know
Roosevelt had also from 1920 to 1930.

We talked a little about the importance of the Far East and
the needful co-operation of the United States, England and
France in that region if world peace is to be maintained. We
were in entire agreement, but I said in conclusion that public
opinion in these countries seems far from co-operative. As the
Minister departed, I feared I had been too frank as there was
at the end a little evidence that he might have been trying to
size me up for a report to the clever Sir Eric Phipps, the British
Ambassador. Anyway I had given no assurances of any attitudes
in Washington,

September 27. Thursday. Dr. Carl Wehner and Dr. Willy
Beer of the Berliner Tageblatt called today and we reviewed
the whole German back-to-the-land movement. My conclusion
was that no real success had been attained. The city unemployed
will not go to farms unless compelled and the Hitler govern-
ment has not applied force in this matter. The large land-

SEPTEMBER 5 , I 934 TO DECEMBER 21 , 1934 179

owners will not part with their lands at prices which the govern-
ment can afford to pay. Nearly all the unemployed who have
been on farms this summer will be back in the cities before the
end of October. Mayor Sahms’ claim to have relieved Berlin of
10O5O00 unemployed applies only to summer workers, and they
were not welcome workers to the peasants.

September 28. Friday, At 9 o’clock, I appeared, upon invita-
tion, at the Carl Schurz Verein where a professor of the Uni-
versity of Berlin spoke on President Roosevelt’s New Deal and
the economic prospects in the United States. It was a good and
scientific presentation without bias or Nazi propaganda. There
were about forty university and government people present. It
was such a real affair that I felt free to raise three serious ques-
tions when the meeting was thrown open for general discussion :
(i) Would the absence of free or near free lands in the United
States make recovery on the Roosevelt lines difficult or im-
possible? (2) Would the fact that neither European emigrants
nor American unemployed were willing to accept homesteads
compel a new sort of social programme? (3) Finally, would the
important fact that the population increase of all highly
civilized countries will come to a standstill about 1970 not
make a difference in economic and social remedies?

There was a good deal of interest shown in these social and
moral factors and some discussion, but no answers. It was 1 1.30
before the party adjourned.

October i. Monday, The wife of a Secretary of a German
Legation in the Balkans called this morning to see if it would
be possible for me to assist her in a difficulty forced upon her
and her husband by Hitler’s representative, Rudolf Hess, who
has ordered her husband to prove that none of his ancestors or
his wife’s were Jews, This lady was born here, of American-
German parents. If she cannot prove that neither of her grand-
parents were Jewish, her husband must resign his position in the
German Foreign Service. She handed me a document which
merely showed that her family had been citizens of the United
States. Of course I could do nothing; but I referred her to
Consul Geist, thinking h^ might say a friendly word to some

l8o SEPTEMBER 5 , I 934 TO DECEMBER 21 , 1934

German official and possibly ease her situation. The woman re-
vealed no sign of non- Aryan blood. This Hlustiates the German
anti-Jewish policy.

October 4. Thursday. My old friend Quincy Wright, of the
University of Chicago, called to talk over the League of Nations
problems as revealed at the recent conference at Geneva. The
prospect is not good. The Nye investigations in Washington re-
vealed the futility of previous League disarmament discussions
while British, American and French armament manufacturers
were selling enormous supplies of arms to all the world and
even maintaining secret agerits at Geneva to defeat the very
purpose of the Disarmament Conferences.

Wright thinks the British Conservatives are opposed to the
purposes of the League. And the Washington investigations
showed that the different armament manufkcturers have sold
great quantities of arms to Germany for gold, contrary to the
treaty between Germany and the United States. Nor have the
English been better. They have themselves violated the Ver-
sailles Treaty in selling aircraft and other war materials to
Germany.

October 5. Friday. At luncheon, the Japanese and Spanish
Ambassadors, Von Prittwitz and his wife. Professor and Mrs.
Hoetzsch of the University of Berlin, Mr. and Mrs. Wright,
Mrs. Baum of Chicago and Miss Sigrid Schultz, among others,
composed the party. The Japanese was very clever and also
very careful. He talked much and said nothing. The Spanish
Ambassador is the opposite type; he revealed his real opinions
whenever he spoke and he was very frank.

Countess von Prittwitz, whose husband was Ambassador to
the United States from 1926 to 1932, sat on my right. She was
far more outspoken in her remarks about conditions and persons
in Germany than I dared be. Well as I know the Von Pritt-
witzes, I do not feel that I can say to any German how terrible
the Hitler autocracy is. On my left sat a scientist’s wife who
showed equal freedom. She said, “German universities are
about to be ruined. Half their professors would migrate to the
United States if it were possible to get positions.” I felt keenly

SEPTEMBER 5, I934 TO DECEMBER 21 , 1034 181

for her and her husband, one of the foremost authorities in
his field in Europe. This sort of talk comes to us almost every
week.

October 6 . Saturday. The newspapers indicate the emergence
of a Fascist regime in Spain. I shall almost weep for my
Spanish friend if it turns out that way. He is a genuine democrat
with a fine mind and much learning. It would spoil his whole
life if his country turned Fascist. But Europe is crazy; no one
can say what is in store for us.

I spent the morning reading masses of documents and reports
on conditions in Germany At any other time in modern Ger-
man history I would say a revolution is immediately ahead, but
evidence has no significance if all communications are in the
hands of a single man and he a monomaniac. He thinks himself
called by some God to redeem Germany, and hence no German
scholar or statesman dares say one word in criticism of anything.
A report yesterday said: Two young S.S. soldiers, brothers,
quietly opposed to the harsh drilling system they must endure,
spoke mildly against the Hitler autocracy and declined to attend
some meeting of the Party. One of them was seized when
away from home, killed and burned. His ashes were handed
in a package to the surviving brother two days later. That
is not proved, but it accords with so many facts about other
executions that I cannot refuse credence. Such things are
supposed to terrorize all Germans so that they will submit to
everything,

October 7. Sunday. I worked all day today on an address I
am to deliver in Washington December 28 or 29 before the
American Historical Association. Previous presidential ad-
dresses have generally dealt with ‘^how history should be
written” or ^Vhat is the proper realm of history.” I think this
has been overdone, and feel I should make a definite historical
contribution instead. I shall talk on the origin and development
of African slavery in the South, with the title: The First
Social Order in the United States ” At this distance, and in
a position where free time is not easy to get, this means much
work.

i82 SEPTEMBER 5 , 1934 DECEMBER 2 1, I 934

October 8 . Monday. Martha’s birthday. Her friends and ac-
quaintances were invited to come at lo, rather late for a party
anH dance. There were many agreeable people, including many
troubled Germans like young Stresemann, the able son of the
former Chancellor Gustav Stresemann, whose mother is a Jew-
ess and whose deceased father is loudly denounced by leaders of
the present regime. Young Stresemann can have no official
position and it is not easy to get legal work because of his Jewish
mother. The evening was, however, quite agreeably spent, ex-
cept that many guests, after the diplomatic and German fashion,
remained long after midnight, at which time I retire.

October g. Tuesday. Luis Zulueta, Spanish Ambassador, and
the one personal friend I have here in the diplomatic corps, a
real personal friend, came to the office today to inform me that
he had resigned and was going back to Madrid where he re-
sumes his work as a professor of philosophy. He said the new
government of Spain is a combination of Fascists and Catholic
reactionaries with the support of Mussolini and the Pope, an
autocratic regime which he could not serve. I had no doubt as
to what he said. The news from his unhappy country has been
such for some weeks that I could easily see what his situation
was. I am afraid his successor will be a Fascist with whom I
shall not be able to associate in any but a purely formal manner
I am distressed to lose my only friend here.

At 7 o’clock Oechsner of the United Press called me at the
house to say that the King of Yugoslavia had been killed in
Marseilles a few hours ago. Barthou, the French Foreign Secre-
tary, was in the auto with the King, and was wounded. It was
a shock, especially because the visit to France was for the pur-
pose of binding France, Italy and Yugoslavia into closer rela-
tions against Germany and Poland. At 7.30, another call in-
formed me that Barthou was dying. These assassinations may
bring international trouble, in view of the tense relations.

At 8.30 in full evening dress, we went to dine with the Egyp-
tian Minister, a rich man who has little to do here but who
likes to parade his wealth. There were uniformed servants
everywhere and the dining-room was huge. There were about
forty people present, all in grand style and with all sorts of

SEPTEMBER 5, I934 TO DECEMBER 21 , I934 183

badges and medals of honour hanging on their conspicuous
fronts, the women with costly diamonds and naked backs and
breasts, red lips and finger nails. Such expense and show and
dress seems out of taste, especially when indulged in by repre-
sentatives of countries which do not pretend to pay their debts.

There was little conversation at table, the party being too
big. Afterwards there was some discussion of the terrible Mar-
seilles events of today, said by a German general to have been
due to negligence of the French police. Their conduct does seem
to have been very bad. One German baroness asked the general
whether war is imminent. She said she had three sons who
would be called to the front. The General said, ‘‘No,” but when
I told him of the war-like talk I have heard, though I did not
mention Dr. Schacht, he admitted that the war spirit is strong.
The baroness changed her tone and seemed rather willing to
have her sons go to the front to fight France. Sir Eric and Lady
Phipps came to us a few minutes before eleven and indicated
that they would like to go but as we are seniors here we must
move first — silly protocol. We said farewell in a little while
and were at home at ii.

October lo. Wednesday, The new Consul-General, Douglas
Jenkins, called. He comes from China and takes the place Mes-
sersmith held for three years. He is a South Carolinian but by
no means provincial or sectional in his attitudes. He has been
in the service nearly twenty years. His knowledge of German
is pretty good and will soon, I believe, be equal to the demands
of his office.

October ii. Thursday, I went to see Secretary von Bulow at
12 o’clock. On the 9th, I received a cable from Washington to
make a sharp and positive demand that Germany cease dis-
criminating against American creditors of Germany. I have
protested half a dozen times without success. The interest pay-
ment of about $2,000,000, due on October 15, had been
ordered by Germany to be paid only to the extent of some 60
per cent, Washington complained again and asked me to de-
mand more. No one could receive me yesterday at the Foreign
Office and today I had no idea I would succeed.

184 SEPTEMBER 5 , 1934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934

When I handed my aide-memoire to Von Bulow, he looked it
through carefiilly and said : “Let me read you a copy of a cable
we sent to Secretary Hull, through Ambassador Luther, yester-
day.” The telegram in German expressed regret that no nego-
tiations for a trade treaty had been agreed to in Washington
last spring. It then informed Secretary Hull that about one
million dollars in registered marks had been cabled over to
New York on the loth. Von Bulow said: “That is the best
we can do and it meets the bondholders’ demands.” And it is
substantially true. The marks will be transferred to Americans
for the purchase of German goods or to travellers coming to
Germany.

We talked a few minutes about the possibihty of trade nego-
tiations. He acknowledged serious doubts about the working of
autarchy here. Commerce must be freer or we shall all be
sufferers. I was favourably impressed by what he said, though
I had the feeling the Germans had somehow learned the content
of my aide-memoire, delayed my interview, and sent the money
to New York. Is there a leak in our office? Or did it get to the
German Embassy in Washington?

October 14. Sunday. I worked all day on the address I am
booked to read before the American Historical Association in
Washington on December 27. I wish I were not in this position,
president of the association this year. My hope is to make some
historical contribution to men’s appreciation of current difficul-
ties in the western world.

October ly. Wednesday. Dr. Schacht came to lunch today
directly from a Cabinet meeting at which Hitler exacted a new
oath of loyalty to himself. All the Reichswehr were required to
take a special oath early in August when Hitler assumed the
functions of President in addition to those of Chancellor. On
August 19 everybody was committed to the new autocracy by
an election in which 90 per cent of the people voluntarily or by
coercion voted “Ja.” Now, at the first formal session of the
Cabinet, every member was compelled to swear allegiance again.
It was announced that every Cabinet member was answerable
solely to the Chancellor, that the Parliament or Reichstag had

SEPTEMBER 5 , I 934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934 ^85

nothing to do with any of the business of government, and that
Hitler was sole spokesman of the people.

These facts were in the minds of everybody as they came
together today. I asked Mr White, our Counsellor, to be
present and keep in mind all that was said about public affairs.
In view of the fact that several people were killed here last June
because they were reported to have talked freely to Ambassa-
dors of France and England, I never do more than listen and
occasionally ask a question when eminent Germans are here.
Dr. Schacht was frank and outspoken in a way no other German
has been since our arrival here. We made a summary mentally
amongst ourselves as soon as he went away, as he said, to his
Reichsbank duties.

At table he said: ‘‘The whole modern world is crazy. The
system of closed national barriers is suicidal and we must all
collapse here and the standard of living everywhere be reduced.
Everybody is crazy. And so am I. Five years ago I would have
said it would be impossible to make me so crazy. But I am
compelled to be crazy. We are excluding raw materials all the
time and must in time be ruined if we cannot export goods
and the exports decline all the time. We have no money to
pay our debts and soon shall have no credit anywhere. England
and France are recommending the constant decrease of ex-
ports to us. Switzerland, Holland and Sweden are taking the
same direction, and the United States hates us so that we can
never re-negotiate our commercial treaty.”

Prince Louis Ferdinand remarked : “The United States may
have a dictator too. Huey Long is absolute master of Louisiana
and expects to be master of the whole country.” Schacht did
not say directly: “Imitate us !” but he made it clear that such
was the Prince’s meaning. When Schacht spoke of the im-
possible dilemma into which he was drifting, I said : You will
have to invent something new. He laughed.

Frau Dr, Schacht, who sat next to me at the table, showed as
much discouragement as had Madame Cerruti on June 29, the
day before the purge, when she had predicted war and said she
was leaving Germany the next day. Frau Schacht talked of a food
shortage, and of compulsory contributions which would be im-
possible to bear very long. There is no chance of her leaving

l 86 SEPTEMBER 5 , 1934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934

Germany, no matter how bad conditions become. In case of
collapse I fear Schacht will be made the goat by Hitler partisans
and be put out. If Hitler were to be assassinated, Schacht
would probably be called upon to become head of the chaotic
German state.

October 18. Thursday. William Hillman, Hearst International
News Service man in London, called to see me today. He re-
ported; (i) Great Britain and Holland have a pact by which
Holland’s eastern border will be England’s eastern border in
case Germany goes to war upon France, and the British army
will enter Antwerp on its way to Germany. For this concession
from Holland, Great Britain has agreed to protect Dutch
pos'sessions in the Far East against Japan. (2) Premier Mac-
Donald is ill and must retire before long. Baldwin and Chamber-
lain are planning an election before that happens, if any
excuse can be found. An election with MacDonald leading
would give victory, and after that he would retire and Baldwin
would be Premier. (3) Towards the United States, the British
Government is increasingly hostile though not warlike, and
there is no prospect of a pact with the United States.

October ig. Friday. I visited Sir Eric Phipps and repeated
in all confidence a report that Armstrong- Vickers, the great
British armament concern, had negotiated a sale of war
material here last week, just before a British Government com-
mission arrived to negotiate some plan with Schacht for pay-
ment of short-term debts of ,^5,000,000 due on current deliveries
of British cotton yam from Lancaster. It is impossible, Schacht
said to me yesterday, to pay the British debts. Yet last Friday,
I reported to Sir Eric, the British arms people were selling
for cash enormous quantities of war supplies. And I was frank
enough — or indiscreet enough— to add that I understood that
representatives of Gurtiss-Wright from the United States were
here this week to negotiate similar sales. The British Ambassa-
dor pretended to be surprised, and said he would let me know
if my information was correct.

About a British-Dutch pact he knew nothing. Yet he said it
might be. I believe he knows there is such an agreement but

SEPTEMBER 5 , I 934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934 ^^7

IS not allowed to admit it. Our conversation was most cordial,
thought I felt, as I left, that he was more reserved than here-
tofore when we have exchanged views. Perhaps I was too
frank, but he promised solemnly not to reveal anything I had
said.

Armand Berard was visiting the children — no longer children
— when we came home from a call on one of our staff. He
asked me to sit aside a moment with him and consider the
present German-French situation. I laughingly referred to the
problem as not acute enough to keep us awake nights. He re-
mained solenm. He said that Goering and Goebbels want war
this winter with the French over the Saar Territory where there
is a plebiscite scheduled for January 13. He went on to say
that troops are being collected on the border of the disputed
zone, barracks being built and men trained daily for another
war.

I expressed the idea that Hitler would be afraid to risk war
now. He insisted that Germany thinks she can win and that if
any pretext at all arises — ^violence of unfavourable nature in the
Saar valley or economic collapse here — there would be an
immediate attack upon France. I reminded him of England's
position and the probability that France and England are
stronger in the air than is commonly reported. He was not
very hopeful of prompt action by England, fearing that the
French capital and nation would be terrorized or destroyed, even
if Germany were beaten in the end.

Berard hoped we would not go home for Christmas, as we
had planned, since too much might happen. I said : I have an
engagement on December 27 in Washington. You might
telegraph President Roosevelt that you need me here! He
laughed, but went away troubled. This shows how tense the
atmosphere is here, and there is some reason. Our Agricultural
Attache who studies food conditions said to me today: “I
would not be surprised if the German Government seized the
Swift stores of lard in and around Hamburg any day. There is
no lard in Germany and none available. Swift & Co, has re-
fused to take marks in payment."

Josephus Daniels, United States Ambassador to Mexico, has
been accused publicly at home of having approved the anti-

l88 SEPTEMBER 5, 1934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934

religious programme of the Mexican Government. He is under
fire from a number of American Catholic associations. Since
1889, when he advised me to take the competitive examination
in Raleigh, N. G., for West Point — in which I came out second
— I have always felt close to him. What he has done in Mexico
I do not know, but he is an able, democratic-minded man, and
I believe the President will not recall him. It would make a
hero of Daniels among Protestants at home, and among
all liberal democrats. The Catholics of the United States
have no right to dictate to the Mexican people what they shall
do.

October 22. Monday, William Hillman came to lunch today.
He had spent Sunday in Dresden with Hanfstaengl, who is the
subject of much jesting in diplomatic circles, and with the Nazi
Governor of Saxony. He reported a dinner conversation in
which the Austrian Consul-General in Dresden avowed himself
a Nazi and was proud of authoritarian Germany My guess is
that he has probably been bribed and is aiding the Nazis to force
Austria into accepting annexation.

Hillman said the Governor of Saxony, a Hitler appointee,
impressed him as a brutish man ready for any ruthlessness.
Hanfstaengl seemed to him very much more clever than he
had expected him to be. He told me that Hitler is about to offer
England a pact under which each power will agree not to
attack the other with aircraft.

October 24, Wednesday, This morning Dr. Max Sering,
eminent professor emeritus of economics and political philosophy
of the University of Berlin, called to see me to talk over a
letter he is writing to Secretary Wallace. He travelled all over
the United States in 1930, as he had done in 1882, studying
economic and agricultural life there. Secretary Wallace had
written me to see him and let him use the government pouch
for correspondence if he wished.

Dr. Sering is seventy-seven years old, but very vigorous. He
delivered a lecture a month ago at the Bad Eilsen international
conference where Dr. Schacht spoke on the German financial
situation. After reading to me a draft of his letter to Mr. Wal-

SEPTEMBER 5 , 1034 TO DECEMBER 21, 1034 l80

lace, he talked of the present German economic situation with
great anxiety. He said: “These people do not know anything
about economic and historical problems. They are sacrificing
the culture and intellectual life of Germany for their fantastic
ideals of perfect unity and complete independence of all the
world, which is impossible for a great nation.^’ I gave him bits
of experience I have had here and part of my remarks to Hitler
and Rust on March 7, 1034, about academic freedom and its
meaning for modern civilization. Dr. Bering was surprised but
most happy to learn what I had said. He then dwelt at some
length on what he regards as the impossible world complex.

He spoke of the present German leadership which he said
“has got itself into a warlike attitude towards all neighbours, and
war would ruin Western civilization. This leadership demands
submission from the universities, the churches and the people,
to its childish ideal. It allows no freedom of speech, conscience
of initiative. That will ruin us. We cannot endure it. I am no
longer young. I oppose the system and I express my opinions
when opportunity offers. If they want to kill me, they can do
it. I shall not submit ”

I was greatly impressed by the old gentleman’s courage and
expressed purpose. When he said the system cannot last here, I
wondered how he imagined effective opposition could be made.
The Reichswehr accepted the absolutism of Hitler as demanded
when Von Hindenburg died. The Cabinet surrendered entirely
when the new “laws” were decreed early in August, and an
election was called for August 1 7 in such a way that any Ger-
man who voted “no” ran the risk of imprisonment, perhaps
death. At the first formal meeting of the Cabinet in October
Hitler compelled every member to take a new oath of complete
submission to him. Only one member — Eltz-Rubenach — re-
sisted. If all had refused there could have been a revolution,
but half the Cabinet is absolutely submissive, the other half
actually so when it comes to a real contest.

Dr. Bering said the system cajmot last. I think its end not
near, and if the economic situation does not become impossible,
the regime is apt to go on for years. However, Dr. Bering is in
danger — serious danger — although I shall keep what he said
entirely confidential.

igO SEPTEMBER 5 , I 934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934

October 25. Thursday. I asked Schacht today about the regis-
tered mark exchange business and the rights of our staff to send
dollars home when they can have only small amounts of marks
with which to buy dollars. He said at once • “I want students
in Germany and travellers to buy registered marks up to a
hundred a day and spend them here in order to help American
exchange. That is the way to pay the interest on American
bonds.” He then added that all diplomatic people may buy
dollars up to ten per cent of their salaries to send back home.
It was clear then just what the bank wishes However, a good
many diplomatic people, in my opinion, buy German marks
and trade in devious ways at German expense. I do not know
this, but I have seen several signs which pointed that way.

Curiously enough, Schacht asked me to see Hitler about the
church issue here and advise him what to do. Two Lutheran
bishops in South Germany are in prison because they refuse to
accept the Deutsche Christen faith and submit to the Hitler
idea of one faith and one single state, with complete unity and
subordination of all youth to the Hitler religious view. I agreed
with Schacht that the imprisonment of bishops and dismissal
of preachers because of religious disagreement greatly affronted
American church people, especially the Lutherans He added
that it hurts us more in America than our Jewish persecutions
But I said : I can’t talk to the Chancellor about internal affairs
of this kind. It would be intermeddling He added- “Von
Neurath has argued for hours with Hitler about this, as I have
done. But he is so surrounded by S.A. and Party men that he
never seems to understand. You might do more than some of
us.” He wished to make an appointment for me but I declined.

October 26. Friday. Colonel Wuest, our Military Attache
and a flying machine observer, came into the office to tell me
about German military preparations. He had been driving
about the country for ten days. He was excited. “War is
imminent, preparations everywhere,” but he was not specific
and I had little time to listen.

October 27. Saturday. At Konstanz today, I met Rexford G.
Tugwell, so-called “brain-truster.” He said he had been

SEPTEMBER 5 , 1034 TO DECEMBER 21, 1034 I 9 I

especially instructed to discuss with me the situation in Germany.
He had been definitely instructed not to visit me in Berlin. I
guessed this had been to avoid pubhcity of a conference between
two “br^in- trusters/’ as I have at times been associated with
Warren and Tugwell, although this is not really true in any
sense.

We talked freely. I was told that Roosevelt holds Cabinet
meetings but does not allow frank discussions. I presume that
is because men like Hull, Roper and Wallace are strongly op-
posed to Ickes and Miss Perkins and Lewis Douglas. Tugwell
said real discussions were taking place between the President
and specialists who are trying to administer the New Deal. I
remarked to Tugwell that I would not care to sit in such a
Cabinet, free discussion, in my opinion, being the function of
Cabinet advisers. Tugwell revealed a sharp dislike of Secretary
Hull, one of the most competent men in the government. We
agreed that the election of Upton Sinclair as Governor of
California, especially since so much money had been poured into
that state to discredit him, would be a help to Roosevelt. It
would be a solemn warning to the extreme capitalistic people
who still think they know how to govern the country.

October 28 Sunday, At 11.30 William and I drove our car
onto the ferry that took us back across Lake Constance and we
continued on towards Stuttgart. At Hechingen, we lunched in a
fair hotel on the main street As I finished I asked the host,
who had just watched 2,000 Hitler Youth march past his win-
dow, whether he could give me a copy of a placard, issued by
Goering’s Air Ministry, on the wall near our table. It was a
colour map of Germany which called on all Germans to learn to
fly and which showed m sharp colours the parts oTthe Baltic
region, Poland, Denmark and France that should be annexed.
The man gave me a copy of his placard.

I said : Are you all learning to fly? He said : “We have twenty
good flyers in Hechingen and they have 2,000 in Stuttgart,
capital of Wurttemberg. All big business wants war; the com-
mon people do not.” The speaker did not know who we were and
of course he spoke German. It was a rather touching conversa-
tion as he showed not a little concern.

102 SEPTEMBER 5, 1934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934

We drove on to Stuttgart where we made no stop. There
was nowhere any sign of unemployment or distress in Beyrouth,
Nurnberg or Stuttgart. In Konstanz there had been distinct
signs of economic decline Hotels were closed, for instance,
though that may have been due to the fact that the summer
season is the time when they are really in use.

October sg. Monday. All through this region, we have seen
signs as we drove into towns which read . ^^Keine Juden
wunsckf^ (Jews are not wanted), Juden sind unser Ungluck^^
(Jews are our misfortune), and so on, sometimes done with
bitter humour. At Erfurt there was every evidence of prosperity,
and in Goethe’s famous town, Weimar, there was the same
evidence of industrial activity. We drove through Bitterfeld, a
town with a huge munitions development, aglow with industrial
activity, every smokestack busy and all the great industrial
houses lighted from top to bottom. In the little hotel at Witten-
berg nearly every table was taken, the great poison gas manu-
facturing plant keeping people busy here and giving Luther’s
town a most lively appearance. On the walls of the old hotel
there were pictures of Von Hindenburg and Hitler, the same
size and make ; there was a third and smaller picture of Dr.
Goebbels. I asked the servant why General Goering was
not represented. He turned away with a smile.

From Wittenberg we reached Berlin in two hours, a beautiful
night drive. It had been a long journey of four days. The cost
was about 200 marks for both of us, not including the gas
purchased on credit, the diplomatic way, the bills to be for-
warded to me in Berlin.

October 30. Tuesday. My usual routine began at 9.30, the
staff members and clerks trailing in after me. They think a
diplomat should not enter his office until 10.30 or 1 1, the clerks
and typists coming at 10. This is especially true of Americans
here. The French and English begin at 9 and continue until
6 or 7.

At 12 o’clock the new Russian Ambassador, Jacob Suritz,
called in all form and ceremony, a distinguished-looking man,
perfectly dressed and veiy protocol in manner, very much like

SEPTEMBER 5 , 1034 TO DECEMBER 21, 1034 103

the French Ambassador. We talked German nearly an hour on
economic subjects.

November i, Thursday, At 12 o’clock. Professor Goar came
in. He was much the same but rather more unfriendly to the
Nazi regime than during the summer of 1033. The stories he
told would seem to indicate increasing hostility to Hitler in
Germany He had sat in a hotel here a day or two before, wait-
ing for a friend whom he dared not visit in his house Near him
were two women who were knitting, after eating their break-
fast. One of them said to the other: “You know my nephew
has been put to death.” The other seemed not to be surprised
but was quite angry

In Hamburg, Goar said, hostility in a luncheon-room was so
outspoken that he had had to leave lest he be reported as a
participant. Yet Goar is beginning a series of lectures before
German universities on cultural subjects, and he has been
guaranteed perfect freedom. He reported that Hitler had sent
word that he would attend his first lecture in Munich.

Dr. George Solmssen, long time president of the Deutsche
Bank-Disconto Gesellschaft and one of the rich Jews of Ger-
many, called a second time. He had told me a good deal of
his sad story a year ago, soon after my Ghamber of Gommerce
address He now seems somewhat reconciled to the Hitler re-
gime and wishes to spend a month in New York, Ghicago and
Washington Since he knows the European financial situation so
well, I gave him letters of introduction to Henry Morgenthau,
Jr., and Daniel Roper. I suspect his real mission is to pacify
the American Jews, as he said he was having conferences with
Dr. Schacht. He will find Morgenthau, father and son, most
impatient with the German regime.

At 6 o’clock, I returned the formal call of the Soviet Ambas-
sador, Suritz. He talked rather freely about Russian economic
life and gave me an inkling of negotiations with Hitler in spite
of the Nazi hatred of everything Russian. I believe Hitler is
trying to negotiate a pact with the Soviets like that with the
Poles, mainly to scare the French. I shall watch all signs.

November 2. Friday. Frederick Oechsner, the United Press

G

194 SEPTEMBER 5, I934 TO DECEMBER 21 , I934

representative, called to explain how badly in his report to his
news agency he had assessed the Lutheran Church situation last
week when I went to Munich. I had asked him at that time
to let me know the exact state of things in Bavaria and Wurttem-
berg where two bishops were in prison, and his report showed
that the Associated Press and London accounts were mostly in-
correct. This morning he said : “I want to explain and correct
my former report ; it was wrong. I do not know how our man
in southern Germany got it so badly mixed.” I knew that his
local reporter, a German, was a Nazi sympathizer who dared
not let him learn the facts. I was glad to note that Oechsner
was willmg to acknowledge his error. I think his organization
in New York wishes him to be as favourable to the Hitler
regime as possible.

I Ixmched today in the magnificent Esplanade Hotel dining-
room, one of the handsomest I have ever seen anywhere, with
the American Club, where the new Consul-General Jenkins was
the speaker and Dr. Dieckhoff was the German official represen-
tative. Jenkins read a careful address on Chinese life and cul-
ture and in no way made statements that would in any way be
compromising here. My thought has always been to say some-
thing or not speak at all, though I endeavour never, in this
atmosphere, to say anything that can be quoted as 'applying
directly to the existing regime.

November 6 . Tuesday. Professor Wolfgang Windelband,
modem historian at the University of Berlin, came to walk
with me. At 5.30 it was already dark, a fact which I was sure
pleased Windelband. He talked about a lecture he is giving on
November 14, before the American Women’s Club, on Bis-
marck in 1870 and 1871. He said he would dwell upon the
mistake the military men made when they demanded Alsace-
Lorraine and not merely German-speaking Alsace. I have never
known a German historian who seemed to understand Bis-
marck’s position when the treaty of 1871 was being forced upon
France. Windelband, however, opposed Bismarck’s inclusion of
Lorraine in the Reich.

Windelband drifted quickly to a discussion of the position
of universities under the Hitler regime. It is a very critical

SEPTEMBER 5 , 1034 TO DECEMBER 21, ^934 ^95

situation, he said. It cannot continue two more years without
ruining university life in Germany. He then told me of his
part in conducting state examinations for history teachers in high
schools. The chairman of the examination board wag a local
Nazi leader. Two other examiners, also Nazis, tried to force
the candidate to answer a number of questions in their ideologi-
cal way. The candidate adhered strictly to history as written
and taught before 1933 Windelband voted that the candidate
was right. The two Nazi examiners voted that the candidate
had failed. The matter was hotly discussed and the board finally
decided the candidate had passed in spite of protests from sev-
eral of the Nazis. The Nazi presiding officer had voted with the
regular professors. Windelband thought this a significant result.

He added that the church struggle was helping the univer-
sities immensely. I think there is a chance, but doubt whether
the Catholics will support the Lutherans in their contest and
believe this failure will defeat the university people. Catholics
do not always practise religious freedom or freedom of speech,
and the Pope is in alliance with the autocratic Fascist crowd in
Spain who are killing their opponents after the Italian-German
manner.

Perhaps the Lutheran-Calvinist people of Germany will win.
More than a thousand of their preachers have been dismissed
because they would not surrender and they are now threatened
with starvation, almost all of them having families. Of course
if all church folk of Protestant faith would hold firmly together,
they would succeed, but how can they co-operate when com-
munication with one another is almost impossible?

November 8 . Thursday. Mattie, Martha and I lunched today
with the British Ambassador and Richard Strauss, the great Aus-
trian musician. About October 13, as I recall, I had asked Sir
Eric Phipps whether there were a pact between England and
Holland under which England guarantees the Dutch position
ill the Far East and Holland opens her harbours to England in
case of another war provoked by Germany or Japan or both.
He then said he knew of no such pact. I had also asked him
whether the Armstrong-Vickers concern, closely linked to the
British Government, had sold war materials to Germany just

196 SEPTEMBER 5 , 1934 TO DECEMBER 21 , 1934

before the arrival of the British committee to negotiate Lan-
caster debts. He had said “No” to both questions, but added
that he would call me if he learned anything. He had not
called me between October 13 and this date.

At table there was no exchange of remarks that might in any
way be called intimate. After all of us retired from the table,
he managed to avoid seeing me alone, even making this con-
spicuous. We had no exchange of words on any subject except
in the presence of others. It is the first experience of this kind
I have had with him. I am convinced the Armstrong people
sold war material to Germans for gold at the very moment the
Lancaster cotton people were being told they could not be paid.
I shall investigate this and carry facts to Washington when
I go.

At 4 o’clock, I called on the Dutch Minister and asked him
about the Dutch-English pact. He said there was none, but
acknowledged he had been in London in the hope of doing
something on the subject. He said Holland would be compelled
to enter the next European war or be annexed to Germany. He
was certain that war is coming.

I told him that Sir Henii Deterding was supposed to be com-
ing to see Hitler soon. He had not heard it. I said : Does Sir
Henri support Sir Oswald Mosley, England’s Fascist Fuehrer?
He said : “I know him well and I am sure he would give Mosley
^100,000 to help him win.” Will he come here then to make
a deal with Hitler to get a monopoly of the German markets
for his oil and gasoline? The reply was: ‘T have heard
recently there was a conference in London with Standard Oil
Company about their relations in Europe, and so I do not be-
lieve Sir Henri has such a plan in mind ” After some further
talk in which we agreed on every essential point about the war
danger in Europe, also in the Far East, I bade him good-bye.
He said he was leaving tomorrow for The Hague and would
call to see me after his return.

November p. Friday. I learned this morning that there are
negotiations between Germany and Russia for sales of goods to
Russia on a five-year credit scheme. To make a little more sure
of this story, I sent for Armand Berard He came and I told

SEPTEMBER 5 , 1034 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934 197

him in confidence what I had heard. He was a little perturbed
but not surprised and said he would let me know if he obtained
further facts. As Bullitt has failed to make any real agreement
about the Russian debt of $200,000,000 to the United States
and IS now on his way back to Washington, I shall press this
case if I have an opportunity and wire information to the State
Department.

The fact that a great number of high German officials and
generals of the Reichswehr were most conspicuous at the Rus-
sian reception two days ago indicated something, though Hitler,
Goering and Goebbels were not present. In my judgment the
Reichswehr, the Foreign Office and the royalists are all pressing
Hitler for a Russian pact like that with Poland, which was a
surprise to all the world in 1933. The idea is to isolate France
and find a market for German goods, as the former regime
found. The Russian idea is to let the United States know that
they are not so important. It all points to peace for a few years,
that is, until Germany can be entirely ready to command
Europe.

JVovember 10, Saturday We went tonight to the Italian con-
cert where Ambassador and Madame Cerruti received all the
diplomatic corps. The concert was good. At the close of the first
part, I spoke a moment with the Polish Ambassador, recently
raised to this rank. He said he thought a German-Russian pact
was in process, perhaps already signed.

J^ovember ii. Sunday, James McDonald came yesterday in
the hope of seeing officials of the German Government. Dr.
Schacht refused to see him, though he had made an appoint-
ment for the gth. He is to see Schacht’s assistant tomorrow, his
hope being to get Germans to allow Jews who leave the country
under heavy pressure to take some of their property with
them.

At luncheon today we had Professor Sering who knows the
economic and agricultural life of the modern world better than
anybody I know. He was again most vigorous and outspoken
in his opposition to the Hitler philosophy and practice. His
wife was even more venturesome in my presence. They are not

igS SEPTEMBER 5, 1934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934

orthodox Christians but they attend Dr. Niemoeller’s church at
Dahlem regularly and rejoice at the Lutheran revolt against
the present effort to force all Germans into one church — the
Deutsche Christen.

Count von Bernstorff, nephew of the former Ambassador to
Washington, was also present and was equally frank in criticism
of the autarchy which he says will ruin Germany for decades
to come. There was another guest who had talked very frankly
sometime before at the Berlin Sport Club. He wore today the
regular Party badge and to my surprise, seemed to be preparing
a report to the Propaganda Ministry of what he heard at our
table. He got nothing from me. The professor paid no atten-
tion to the Nazi party man, except to talk more frankly and
mention to me that the son of the famous Admiral Von Tirpitz
was related to him, which interested the Party man somewhat. It
was a unique luncheon. When all were gone, Martha reported
that Von Bernstorff had said so much in the presence of the
Nazi leader that she feared he would be reported.

November 12. Monday. The manager of the American Fox
Film Company here came to the office to say that in a con-
ference of film people in the Propaganda Ministry a few days
ago he had been ordered to put unfriendly interpretations into
American films presented in Germany. He had protested, saying
that such propaganda would still further exasperate American
public opinion. The German film officials replied they did not
care what Americans thought or said of the Germans, He
wished me to intervene in his behalf in case trouble came to
him for not obeying orders All I could say was that I would
ask our Consul-General Jenkins to do whatever the law or
treaties allowed I am expecting the Fox Film Company to be
ordered out of the country, as some other companies are now
about to be.

November 13. Tuesday. This morning I violated my usual
rule and went to the City Hall to hear General Goering ad-
dress the Academy for German Justice, a kind of German bar
association. The wonderful hall was crowded to utmost capacity
when I arrived. On every desk in my part of the room there

SEPTEMBER 5, I934 TO DECEMBER 21 , I934 I99

was a large envelope filled with beautifully printed pamphlets
describing German grievances against the world, especially the
Saar question. Von Neurath had contributed a brief plea for
the German claims

Hans Frank, head of the Ministry of Justice here, presided.
Last summer, Frank was about to be killed because he ventured
to inquire about certain prisoners in a concentration camp near
Munich. He escaped somehow. It was June 30. I could not help
thinking of this story when he rose to greet Goering with the
^'Heil Hitler” salute which every German official is compelled
to give on every possible occasion.

Goering entered the hall in a Brown Shirt uniform, his chest
covered with medals and badges of honour. He turned towards
the audience as he approached the platform, raised his right
hand, bowed and shouted ^^Heil Hitler.” I did not enjoy these
demonstrations. They have always seemed so absurd to me.
But several of the other diplomats did heil Hitler effectively.
Von Neurath and Von Schwerin-Krosigk, the Finance Minister,
joined reluctantly, as it appeared to me

The audience sat down and Goering read an address which
re-emphasized the absolute dependence of every German citizen
upon the Fuehrer. There was to be no sort of resistance at any
time. When the speaker briefly explained the murders of June
30, he showed no sign whatever of any consciousness of error
on that occasion. All foreign peoples had denounced the acts
of the Fuehrer although he pretended he was saving the German
people from disaster, but this was stupid. '^We needed to have
no indictments, proofs or trials. We were killing enemies of the
people.”

Everybody knew Goering had ordered the killing of men
and women against whom there was no feeling or evidence
anywhere that they were guilty of treason. At one place the fat
general said heads will simply be chopped off if men do not
obey the inspired Hitler and submit to his decrees. A good many
of these statements were interjected. They did not appear in the
printed copy when it came out in the papers. Since correspon-
dents of the foreign press were not present there was no likeli-
hood of a sensation anywhere, and German judges and lawyers
were instructed emphatically what they must do.

200 SEPTEMBER 5, I934 TO DECEMBER 21 , I934

November ij. Thursday. Consul-General Jenkins called to
review some of his work and then told me that a clerk m the
Propaganda Ministry had met one of the consulate clerks at
luncheon today, had told him that Jenkins was as real an enemy
of Germany as was former Consul-General Messersmith, and
had added that they had a copy of Jenkins’ last report to Wash-
ington which proved the point. That was a little exasperating
to the Consul-General. He had made only one report and that
at the request of the President. It was a survey of agricultural
relief for the unemployed, and I had read it carefully. There
was no criticism, simply a summary of all the reports made by
Minister Darre, head of the Ministry of Agriculture.

It was certainly stupid for anyone in Goebbels’ office to re-
veal such a thing even if it had been true. It annoys a new and
very important American official here, and it reveals an espio-
nage which puts us all on our guard. The document had lain on
my desk three days, not being regarded as specially confidential.

At 8.30 1 went to the Adlon Hotel to hear Minister of Educa-
tion Rust lecture on German culture and education. The host
of the evening was Alfred Rosenberg who met me at the en-
trance to the hall. The photographers snapped us as we shook
hands. It was not delightful to me, for there is no German
official who thinks less clearly or indulges m more bunk. I was
again photographed as I shook hands with General von Fritsch,
chief of the Reichswehr and an opponent, I am sure, of all that
Rosenberg and Rust represent.

When Rust began speaking it was clear that we were to hear
only propaganda. He talked of the heroic Party struggle, of the
inspired work of Hitler, and of the absolute necessity of keep-
ing all children from learning anything but loyalty to the State
and rigid discipline, both mental and physical. The best way to
bring up young people was to put them in farm homes the first
six years of their lives, then in country primary schools, and
finally, from twelve to eighteen, in classical schools. This would
make good Hitlerites and heroic Germans ready to die for their
race and country. No religious influences should be allowed until
after the twelfth year. The audience applauded warmly. It was
all just another revelation of the type of thought or absence of
thought that prevails here. Will intellectual Germany submit?

SEPTEMBER 5 , 1934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934 201

November i 6 , Friday. L. V. Steere, our Agricultural Attache,
called after a month’s sojourn in the United States. He reported
two conferences of the Under-Secretaries of State and Agricul-
ture in which the majority opinion was very strong against their
chiefs, Hull and Wallace, exponents of free trade policy as far
as it can be practised now. It is not unnatural that bureaucratic
under-secretaries from former administrations should still
adhere to the old protective philosophy, although most en-
lightened men recognize that protectionism was one of the
great causes of the disaster of 1929-1934.

Mr. Pierce of the International General Electric Company
came to urge a favourable report to the State Department on a
Siemens proposition to lay a cable between Germany and the
United States, This scheme of the greatest European electric
power companies in co-operation with the cotton importers of
Bremen is designed to connect Germany and the United States
without touching England, by cable. Germany would be able
to buy cotton with the money ($10,000,000 or $12,000,000) ob-
tained from the United States as payment for the laying of the
cable. Two difficulties are in the way : England has a monopoly
of the cable business now and may not allow contact at any
point in Ireland, and the American Telephone & Telegraph
Company in New York may not accept this new project as a
connecting link between the United States and the German
systems. Mr. Pierce explained and argued for a time and I
became convinced it seemed to be a reasonable undertaking
and agreed to have our Commercial Attache make a study of
the matter.

November ly. Saturday, The Polish Ambassador, Lipski,
called for the usual greetings after his promotion from Minister
to Ambassador and remained nearly an hour. He was frank
in the discussion of Polish-German relations : “The pact of last
winter is only a temporary affair, Germany intends to re-annex
part of our country, the maps posted all over Germany show
this clearly. I protested against these a few days ago, but re-
ceived no satisfactory answer from the Foreign Office. The
Russians and the Germans are negotiating a commercial treaty
which I think has a political and military pact attached, bu^

202 SEPTEMBER 5, ^934 DECEMBER 21, 1034

it is secret, and these negotiations are going on largely to iso-
late France.” He did not say that it was the same motivation
that actuated his government last year, but he let it be
inferred.

Germany, he went on, intends to re-annex Alsace-Lorraine
and large parts of Poland as well as Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Then she will control the Balkan region zone and all the Baltic
Sea. Europe wiU be a tJerman realm if she succeeds. This was
nothing new, but coming from one who had helped his country
humiliate France in 1933, it was interesting. However, it was
plain that he still regards France and England as the only hope
of the Poles. He believes firmly in the French-English-Belgian
pact of last July. Co-operation of the western powers, he stated,
is the only salvation for all the smaller states of Europe.

It seems to me that Monsieur Lipski is not entirely in sym-
pathy with autocracies, although he has never indicated dislike
of the reactionary Polish regime. Like a diplomat, he obeys
orders from home and always maintains a smooth countenance
even when embarrassing questions are raised.

We went to dine with Professor Hermann Oncken at his
house in Dahlem. The library which was filled with books,
perhaps 4,000 volumes, was crowded with guests, all standing
until .we went to the dinner-table. Oncken is a German
historian of highest rank and author of many books, though
none that I have seen shows the non-partisanship that seems to
me necessary if history is to serve its purpose.

When the dinner service was about half finished, one of the
guests rose to pay tribute to the host on the occasion of his sixty-
fifth birthday. The speaker read a marvellous poem which paid
appropriate tribute to Oncken but satirically warned Oncken of
the terrible misfortune which might hang over him if there
were a possibility that some one of his ancestors was of non-
Aryan blood. The author gave a seemingly solemn admonition
to all present in a language as witty and clever as I have ever
heard. Although the present Nazi philosophy was ridiculed in
every verse, no quotation could have been found that the Nazis
could use to convict the author before a German court.

A second speaker. Dr. Friedrich Schmidt-Ott, paraphrased
Schiller’s poetry in a similar vein, showing the greatness of the

SEPTEMBER 5 , I 934 ^0 DECEMBER 21, 1934 2 O 3

famous poet of Goethe’s time and the distressing liberality of
the one German poet whom Nazi Germany claims to be its
model. Still another speaker spoke in a like strain for ten
minutes, and finally Dr. Ferdinand Sauerbruch, the famous Von
Hindenburg physician, concluded the tributes of the occasion
in a witty summary of what had been said and closed by clever
compliments to Frau Oncken. From the beginning to the end
there was sharp fun-making of the Hitler-Rosenberg philosophy
and conduct, and everybody seemed to enjoy all that was
said.

Although we have attended many dinners in Berlin, some
in honour of President von Hindenburg, some at the French
and English Embassies, I have nowhere seen such clever
people. Ail the guests were specialists in certain fields of history,
literature and art, and several had held high positions in former
governments here. It was a challenge to any person of learning
and the whole performance showed by contrast the emptiness
of diplomatic dinners where no one ever feels free to say any-
thing about the fields of history and literary criticism, because
nobody knows history and literature and because no one trusts
anyone else. We came away at 1 1 o’clock.

Movember 20. Tuesday. We lunched today with Mrwi and
Mrs. White. There was one really intellectual person present,
a former German Cabinet official who had resigned when his
chief, Stresemann, disagreed sharply with him about official
policy. His name is Hans von Raumer. Another guest was Dr,
Wilhelm Solf, the German Ambassador to Japan in 1905, who
lives half time here and half in Switzerland on account of
delicate health, and perhaps a delicate position under the
Hitler regime.

Von Raumer indulged after luncheon in the first real assess-
ment of the Bismarck era I have ever heard from a German :
^‘Bismarck had done great work, but his greatest mistake con-
sisted in the clever shaping of the German Imperial constitu-
tion so that the German people thought they had parliamentary
government when in fact it was a dictatorship of Prussia, speak-
ing through the Reich’s Supreme Council in which Prussia
always had a majority — seventeen to sixteen — when all members

204 SEPTEMBER 5 , 1934 TO DECEMBER 2 1, I 934

were present. In this way the people of Germany were
dominated by an utterly undemocratic group.”

Von Raumer had been a member of the Reichstag from 1 920
to 1930 and I realized that he spoke from experience under
the democratic Weimar constitution of 1919. He did not men-
tion the fact that the Bismarck suffrage system also stalled popu-
lar opinion in the old Reichstag, even though, as he said, that
body really had no power against the Prussian Junkers, who
dominated the Council majority. All this was familiar to me
from my Leipzig student days, but I had never heard a Ger-
man scholar acknowledge this undemocratic system as a great
Bismarckian blunder. He said it was that system which pre-
vented German people from earning parliamentary govern-
ment. It also caused the World War.

November S2. Thursday. Frank C. Lee, American Consul
General at Prague, who has been appointed First Secretary here
to take the place of Mr. Wilson, called this afternoon, Mr. Lee
has served twenty years as Consul, speaks Russian and German
well, and knows the European complex fairly well Judged from
occasional reports which have come to me here. There is no
doubt in my mind of Lee’s capacity or industry, but his visit to
look things over reminds me of certain interesting facts.

When I accepted this post, I stipulated that there was to be
no complaint if I lived within my official income. I could not
play the rich man’s game as Walter Hines Page had done in
London at the expense of his family and friends. However, I
had not been in Berlin long before I received notice that the
then Counsellor, George Gordon, was to be recalled and J. C.
White was to succeed him. In fact, William Phillips, Assistant
Secretary of State, had told me this was contemplated. I did not
realize the purpose of this appointment until some months later
when I heard that White was one of the richest men in the
service.

At the same time, I learned that Orme Wilson was to come
with the Whites, and he was reported also to be a veiy wealthy
man. This was clearly intended to supplement my want of
millions of dollars. Furthermore, I saw that Jay Pierrepont
Moffat, brother-in-law of White, and Phillips, uncle of Wilson.

SEPTEMBER 5, I934 TO DECEMBER 21 , I934 205

both in high positions in the State Department, intended to
have White and Wilson manage the Embassy.

This is the background to Lee’s visit today. White and Wilson
show no enthusiasm. I believe Lee is superior in character to
anybody on the staff here.

November 23. Friday. Frank Gannett, a personal friend of
President Roosevelt, came in today and asked for an interview
with Hitler if possible. He reported that London was very
fearful that Goering would send a thousand aircraft over that
city during some fog and destroy it before the English could
begin a defence. I rather doubted the story, and suspected it
was all a means of getting appropriations from Parliament for
enlarging the British air forces.

Mr. Gannett is the owner of a dozen New York State news-
papers. He said there are many well-to-do people at home who
are arguing for a Fascist system there, with a sort of Hitler
to head it. They use the facts of perfect order and absence of
crime in Germany as arguments for such a move. I told him
there were other phases of the regime which would shock
Americans to the limit.

At 12.30 I went to the Foreign Office to present a protest
once more against German discrimination in debt payments.
Von Bulow received me and I gave him the document, this
being about the fifth or sixth time I have presented the same
words, or nearly the same. Von Bulow repeated the old excuse :
‘‘We sell no goods to the United States and so can pay no
debts.”

I replied : I understand that argument, but our bondholders
cannot see its value. They think the bonds were not issued on
any such understanding. They would be willing to take lower
interest payments if other peoples, English and French, did
the same. When he referred again to lack of trade, I said : That
is unfortunate and you know our government is now reducing
tariff rates as fast as public opinion will allow. I may say that
Secretary Hull delivered an address early this month in New
York in which he said the protective system has been a curse
to our people. I said I agreed with the Secretary, but that we
cannot suddenly abandon a policy when so many thousands of

2 o 6 SEPTEMBER 5, I934 TO DECEMBER 21 , I934

workers are certain to be unemployed. As fast as we can change
this we shall do so. But just as we abandon our barriers, you
set up even higher ones and create a system which you cannot
change without even greater losses and disturbances. How can
we have better economic relations when such systems are ap-
plied? There was a half-hearted assent to my remark about the
present German autarchy.

November 26. Monday. Dr. Arnold Brecht, formerly a Cabinet
member here, now a lecturer at the New School for Social
Research in New York, came to see me. I had not known
that he lived in Berlin and was sorry we had not had him to
dine or lunch with us. He seems to me to be a very able and
truly patriotic German. He remains one year more in New
York, and I wonder what he will do when he comes back next
June. He is not welcome here and unemployed in the United
States. He is not a Jew, but just as helpless, or will be.

November 20. Friday, At 4.30 I called to see Sir Eric Phipps,
thinking he might tell me something of recent moves in London
which look like definite warnings to Germany about their
intense rearmament. He said : “I went to London Friday night,
November 23. I spent Sunday, the 25th, in the country with
Sir John Simon, the Foreign Secretary. He told me what was
planned for debate in the House of Commons for Wednesday,
the 28th, and Monday morning I sat with the Cabinet for an
hour or more reviewing facts and circumstances here. I returned
early on Tuesday the 27th, with a memorandum to be pre-
sented to the German Foreign Secretary. I read the memoran-
dum to von Neurath at 12 o’clock.” Sir Eric then read the
document to me. It was a positive warning to Germany on two
subjects : the reported and accepted accounts of German secret
arming, especially air preparations, and the effects of this secret
and perpetual rearmament upon world opinion. The British
Cabinet members were willing to have their views corrected by
Von Neurath if they were wrong. Sir Eric then said :

I was asked to see the Chancellor at 5 the same day. I read
him some of the items of the British document. After a mo-
ment, he jumped up, ran about the room, waved his arms and

SEPTEMBER 5^ I 934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1034 207

declared ‘all countries around me are arming, they have ten
thousand airplanes and yet they complain that we Germans
have 1,000 !’ He went on shouting and fussing and Von Neurath
joined him. I came away not a little disgusted. Next morning
Von Neurath called and begged me to see him. I went to his
office and he tried indirectly to correct the impression the
Chancellor had made and especially to explain his own conduct.
You see the Foreign Secretary here is never consistent or firm.”
I said : Of course Von Neurath is afraid of Hitler and conse-
quently always appears in the presence of outsiders to agree
with him.

Sir Eric then explained the British policy and the debate in
Parliament of Wednesday night, November 28. I said : It seems
to me your government has acted very wisely and I am glad
the information has been conveyed to the American State De-
partment. I then asked him about the possibility of a British-
American agreement as to the Far Eastern naval problem. He
said he had not had any reactions to that problem while in
London, but was convinced our two countries could agree. In
case Japan broke away and hastened her naval armament,
England would not object to American increases of naval
strength. This naval race looked foolish to him, but Japan
seemed bent upon an imperialist programme.

Once more I come to my 1933 solution of these dangerous
problems ; If Great Britain and the United States unite upon a
guarantee of Philippine independence and the existing status in
the Far East, the dangerous naval race will cease, and there
will be peace in the Pacific. After this success, the two countries
can present a united front against war-like Germany at the next
disarmament conference, with Russia and France supporting
them, and peace in Europe will be guaranteed All this has
been carefully described to the State Department and the Presi-
dent, and both the British and French Ambassadors have
seemed to agree with me entirely, also the Dutch Minister who
is always alert and deeply interested.

As if! had not done enough for one day, we went to the
Berlin Staatsoper to hear a concert conducted by Enc Kleiber,
reported to be a half-Jew who managed somehow to continue
his art in Berlin. It was an interesting performance, a truckload

208 SEPTEMBER 5, 1934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1034

of police guarding the building. The police were there because
a demonstration by the Nazi part of the audience was expected
against the music composed by the Austrian-Jewish artist, Berg,
forbidden by German decrees. But when the Berg part was
finished, one man in a prominent box shouted *‘Heil Mozart” —
a signal for a protest from the audience. There was no protest.

December i. Saturday. The foreign press gave their usual
dinner and ball at the Adlon Hotel. We arrived as guests of
Miss Sigrid Schultz. The British Ambassador, General von
Reichenau, acting Chief of Staff, and some English and Ameri-
can visitors were at the same table. The French Ambassador,
the Russian, General von Fritsch and Dr. Goebbels were at
another table. They seemed very friendly although hatreds
between Fran^ois-Poncet and Goebbels, and between Von
Fritsch and Goebbels are known to be tense. Von Neurath came
late and went away without dining. The reports were that he
was not offered proper seating rank. He should have been
placed at the table with Goebbels and that would have been
most embarrassing.

December 2, Sunday. I received a report today from Stuttgart
which described a happening there on Wednesday, November
28. Alfred Rosenberg who is the official philosopher of the
present regime went to Stuttgart, the capital of Wurttemberg,
the home of Von Neurath, to lecture to the South Germans
on their loyalty to the sacred state. He reviewed the un-
happy relations of the ancient Catholic Church with the
Holy Roman Empire, the first Reich. ^‘No religion shall be
permitted to weaken the hold of the state on the people. Only
what is useful to Germany can be regarded as true and we
claim the absolute right to remould all things in Germany as
they should be. National Socialists in Germany will form in
the future a social order with all the holy mysticisms of the
medieval age.” He concluded : ‘'You all know that there is a
senatorial hall with sixty-one seats in the Brown House in
Munich which has never yet been in use. We only await the
signal of the Leader to lay the foundations of this holy order
of Germany in this hall.”

SEPTEMBER 5, I934 TO DECEMBER 21 , I934 2O9

This reveals a little of what was said, and of the strange
mysticism which has gripped the vast majority of the German
people, if votes on two occasions, November 12, 1933, and
August 19, 1934, prove anything. This sort of talk is repeated
almost every day by Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, Darre, Ley and
minor characters, never by university professors or preachers,
except the Deutsche Christen people. The newspapers repeat
these ideas always with approval.

In Stuttgart all the officials of the city, the S.S. and S.A. men
and officers and some Reichswehr people attended under com-
pulsion. The audience was 8,000 strong, shouting ‘‘Heil Hitler”
and roaring with applause when Rosenberg attacked the
churches for their resistance to Gleichsanschaltung (complete
subordination to the state). It had been only a week since the
Bishop of the Protestant Church of Wurttemberg had been re-
leased from prison and reinstated in his office because of the
overwhelming demands of church people. Yet Rosenberg went
the limit in the same city in attacking aU church people who
do not submit to the Wotan religion which Rosenberg is trying
to establish. Hitler was in Stuttgart a week before and acted in
a similar way. Is Rosenberg now renewing the religious war?

Another interesting illustration: A member of a university
student organization which was dissolved some time ago by
order of the government reported to a member of our staff
that a few days ago a prominent man invited a group of
students who had been members of the club to dine with him.
To their surprise, as the company was about to sit down around
the table, an S.A. leader appeared at the door with a detach-
ment of soldiers around him. The S.A. leader forbade the en-
tertainment and was about to order the party to leave when a
student from the Saar country remarked that this sort of thing
was very interesting to him and added that he would describe
it to his friends in the Saar country where he lived. The dinner
was at once authorized to proceed. I am not sure of this but
it resembles other rulings I know about and so I record it.

December 5. Monday, A professor from Cologne, an eminent
architect who had just returned from Washington where he had
met and talked with Roper and other members of the Cabinet,

210 SEPTEMBER 5, 1934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1034

called for a short visit. He showed great interest in and en-
thusiasm for the United States. But the significant part of his
conversation showed how troubled and embarrassed Ambassa-
dor Luther must be in Washington. He seems not to be a Nazi
and he dislikes the whole system now prevailing in Germany.
Yet he must fight for German interests and justify the dangerous
policy which prevails here. If he resigned, his status at home
in Essen would be very difficult. If he remains in Washington,
he must maintain a false attitude. Such is the position of
many eminent Germans everywhere.

December 4. Tuesday. Colonel Deeds called. He represents
the National Cash Register Company and also the National
City Bank of New York. His son was brought before the Nye
committee of the Senate last September to explain sales of arms
to Germany by a company of which he is an officer, allegedly
in violation of the American treaty with Germany. I have seen
Deeds many times. He is the good-natured big business type
and affects to be enthusiastic for Roosevelt’s New Deal. He
considers me a naive academic who is not aware of the under-
cover armaments deals which business men have tried again and
again to put over here in the last eighteen months. He said he
strongly favoured international disarmament. Yet he told me
his register company was doing a vast business here with the
famous Krupps of Essen. Krupp receives 20 per cent of the
profits of sales to Germany.

From Vienna, I learn that Messersmith is doing fair, even
excellent, work at his difficult post. I understand the German
Minister, Von Papen, is doing nothing, that he is most un-
welcome there and that the whole diplomatic corps practically
ignores him. This is probably correct ; Von Papen was to have
been shot here last June, and his dismissal as Vice-Chancellor
preceded the nomination, against the Foreign Office’s wish, to
Vienna. All Europe knows what double-dealing Von Papen has
engaged in from the time of his residence in Washington until
now. The poor scamp is now in Berlin. His son is in an
Arbeitsdieust camp at Juterbog and even more miserable than
his father. I think he is an excellent young man, but he cannot
get any position in Germany, he does not know how to work

SEPTEMBER 5, I 934 TO DECEMBER 21 , 1034 2II

his own way upwards and he can take only ten marks, $3.00, if
he leaves Germany.

Other news from Vienna is that Mussolini has agreed to a
mutual assistance treaty with Austria, and that Hungary has
tightened its relations with Italy, especially economic, which
annoys Germany. Yugoslavia is still threatening Italy because
Mussolini’s hired assassins killed their autocratic and murderous
King. Russia, Poland, Germany, Turkey and Austria all have
been playing this medieval game for years.

December 5. Wednesday, Norman Ebbutt of the London
came in to give me a report on the effects of the London
protest to Hitler about rearming — a protest made after England
and the Urdted States have sold rnillions of dollars worth of
arms to Germany. Ebbutt thought the British Government was
pressing for a disarmament conference in February or March.
He had written a true story of church troubles here two days
before. The Germans forbade the sale of the Times and rebuked
Ebbutt. He was not a little annoyed. I reminded him of the
frequency of this treatment of British and American press people.

December 7. Friday, At 8.30 we went to dinner at the house
of our Military Attache, Colonel Wuest. We met the wife of
General von Fritsch, head of the Reichswehr, who said she and
her husband were not permitted to attend diplomatic dinners
and receptions. The commander of the Reichswehr of all Ger-
many north and east of the Elbe was also present, but there
was no reference to the rearmament work now going on all over
Germany. The German Military Attache at Washington was
most interesting in his discussion of American military history.
He knows the Civil War as no American Attache here knows
German war history.

I believe that after the Saar election, on January 13, there
will be trouble. In case it comes to an open issue, half of Ger-
many will rank themselves among the opponents of the existing
regime. If the Catholics support the Protestants, Hitler’s re-
gime will begin to slip. If Catholics hold aloof, Hitler will
murder a lot of preachers and force all into submission. I look
for no trouble, however, until February.

212 SEPTEMBER 5 , 1934 TO DECEMBER 21 , 1934

December lo. Monday A small party came to lunch. Ebbutt
confirmed the report of mid-October that a British woman,
connected with Hitler’s inner group, was here just before the
British negotiations on Lancaster debts, to sell war equipment
for Armstrong-Vickers. The British Ambassador ‘'had not
known about it,” according to previous conversations. I am
sure now the British staff members did know.

I had a long talk with the French Ambassador, Frangois-
Poncet. He agreed that the British move of two weeks ago had
brought the Germans to recognize the danger of their position
and to agree to a conference on international armaments after
the Saar election, January 13. But he added: “The Germans
will demand annexations somewhere when the conference be-
gins and, in view of their belligerent attitude, we will have to
refuse. That will defeat the conference.”

At II this morning the Dutch Minister told me the same
thing that the Belgian told me last week “Germany will annex
Holland if she wins a European war.” He was very positive
in this, and also perturbed about the Japanese denunciation of
the Treaty of Washington. “It means war if the United States
and England do not unite in their Far Eastern policy. England
will lose her Hongkong and other Chinese concessions, the
United States will find the Philippines annexed to Japan, and
we, the Dutch people, will lose our three-hundred-year-old Far
Eastern holdings.”

December ii. Tuesday, We went to say farewell at 12 o’clock
to Von Neurath. He kept me waiting ten minutes or more and
did not apologize, although he was very cordial for fifteen min-
utes. As I bade the Minister adieu and wished him a Merry
Christmas, he sent his best wishes to Secretary Hull and added :
“I agree entirely with him in his commercial policy and do not
agree with the present German quota and bilateral scheme. It
cannot succeed.” That is the same attitude Schacht expressed
at our house before several representatives of foreign countries
in September.

Returning for a few minutes to the Chancery, I then went
to the Automobile Club to lunch at i .30 with Dieckhoff, David-
son and Ritter, all experts of the Foreign Office. For an hour

SEPTEMBER 5, I934 TO DECEMBER 21 , 1034 213

and a half they belaboured me to press in Washington for a
treaty between Germany and the United States, allowing lower
tariffs to them in return for their buying more cotton, copper
and lard. I replied in different ways : first, the present treaty
had not been kept ; second, there is a tough public opinion in
the United States, as a result of the June 30 events, church
treatment, and the general feeling that Germany is preparing
for aggressive war. We then discussed the recent compromise
between Germany and France about the Saar plebiscite as
being an important move against war.

When they came back to the urgent treaty business, I said :
In view of the present attitude in the United States, if you had
not denounced the existing treaty last October 14, without
asking us, it might be much easier for the State Department
to renew the treaty, or prolong it for a year or two, without
having to get Senate approval. But now, with the treaty aban-
doned by Germany, it will be hard to get Congress to give a
new treaty consideration. The Nye Committee will discuss war
and the German purchases of war supplies (I had told them
before how bad it was to pay gold to American arms manufac-
turers and deny their ability to pay interest on bonds) during
the month of January, and also the whole debt matter. So
we shall hardly be able to get a treaty considered before
Congress adjourns.

One of the experts said : “We shall have to withdraw our
abrogation of the treaty.” Dieckhoff said, “No, we cannot do
that. Can’t you get the President to appoint a committee of
three American business men to go to Washington to discuss
the matter?” Later, according to a plan suggested by Schacht,
they could come to Germany to inform themselves of German
conditions. Their study might be used as a basis for future nego-
tiations. I said : I can ask the State Department to consider the
matter — that is all — unless I am questioned about it by the
President,

This closed our luncheon discussion. I was convinced that all
of them realized how inconsiderate the German attitudes were
towards the outside world Dieckhoff, whom I know well and
sympathize with rather closely, escorted me to the cloakroom.
I said: You know what a terrible impression the events of

214 SEPTEMBER 5, I934 TO DECEMBER 21 , I934

June 30 made in the United States and you must see how
unpopular a treaty would be. He agreed, but did not say too
much by way of explanation.

Realizing how troubled the liberal element of Germany is,
and this includes nearly all the Foreign Office people, I called
Dieckhoff in the afternoon and asked if we might not drive
together a little as he went away from his office. He agreed
and we drove around the Tiergarten and talked the problem
over again. I told him how universal is the feeling that Ger-
many is preparing for aggressive war, mentiomng the Goering
flying-machine maps circulating all over the country and even
saying that ministers of neighbouring countries had recently said
to me that Germany means to annex them. I had in mind what
the Belgian and Dutch representatives had said recently. He
was not surprised. Though he expressed regrets and hoped I
would try to disabuse the President’s mind if he has such feel-
ings, I could hardly hope to do much in that direction, for my
own reports during October and November had given much
evidence of Germany’s intense militaristic feeling. I asked
Dieckhoff to look at the maps in the halls of the University of
Berlin which I had recently seen. It was all a personal affair,
though I had some feeling that he might not keep his promise.
We parted where the Tiergartenstrasse crosses the trolley line
which runs southward towards the canal

December 13. Thursday. We drove from Berlin to Hamburg
to catch our ship for New York.

December 18. Tuesday. About 1 1 o’clock yesterday the ocean
began to roll. At i o’clock it was wild. All day and night—
about thirty hours— the waves were so high that the ship fre-
quently stood almost still for hours at a time, lest it be over-
whelmed by the storm. A Norwegian freighter was caught in
the same storm. Our ship was called upon for assistance as the
freighter was about to sink, but a German ship arrived first,
spread oil over the water around the distressed ship and
finally rescued all the ofiicers and sailors. The captain of
our ship was not disposed to let anybody know all this, but
the story was noised about the Manhattan this afternoon.
This is the third time I have experienced this sort of rough

SEPTEMBER 5 , I 934 TO DECEMBER 21, 1934 2 I 5

sailing over this part of the Atlantic and the second time the
ship I was on tried to rescue a sinking crew or ship. It is not
very agreeable.

December ig. Wednesday. W. H. Hassen, representative of
the Sinclair Oil Company, whose president and manipulator
was in jail three months, sat at table with us today. He sells
oil products all over Europe, a very active, clever business man,
as I estimate him.

He said : “I am a staunch Republican. Our American people
are not national-minded. They must become so. We must for-
bid all imports except rubber, coffee and one or two other
necessities and sell all we can to other peoples, arm and drill
our people.’’

I said : You mean by this that all the world should arm to the
teeth and later either destroy all your arms material because they
are obsolete, or start a war and kill your people, thereby using
the arms. That stopped him for a moment but he came back:
‘‘Yes, it is a struggle for the survival of the fittest.” I said : No ;
destruction of the civilized peoples and the survival of the least fit.

Notwithstanding the logic of my reply, he held to his point,
argued for American arming of all Europe and sharply opposed
the reduction of American tariffs. Such is the view I know of
many eminent business men everywhere : the Du Fonts of the
United States, the Krupps and Thyssens of Germany, the Arm-
strong-Vickers people in England, and the Schneider-Crusot
interests in France, It is the talk of Mussolini, whom Hassen
regards as a great statesman. I suppose Roosevelt will find this
type of man very difficult to control. If he does not vigorously
control them, his New Deal will fail.

December 21. Friday. This voyage as well as the studies I
have made of seventeenth century seafaring convince me that
historians have never assessed correctly the courage and bravery
of the men and women who settled North America. It was no
small thing for a poor family, whose members knew the At-
lantic only from the stories told by neighbours, to venture
across this terrible sea on a ship of 200 tons burden. They

2I6 SEPTEMBER 5 , 1934 TO DECEMBER 21, I 934

did it by the thousands and for the reason that they
wanted to make homes for themselves Thousands and tens
of thousands in a single year! In my judgment, people
of such character were apt to make any country great and
enterprising.

VI

December 25, to May 21^ iggg

December 23, Sunday. We reached New York at 4 this after-
noon, a day and a half late.

December 25. Tuesday. The thirty- third anniversary of our
marriage at Auburn, N. C , was celebrated simply here in
Raleigh. Mattie was with her family part of the time, I visiting
my father in nearby Clayton, my birthplace.

December 27. Thursday. Having been chosen president of the
American Historical Association, I delivered this evening a
formal address which I had prepared under pressure in Berlin
on the emergence of the first social order in the United States.
'Professor Owsley of Vanderbilt, one of my students who took
his doctorate soon after the World War ended, rose to present
me a volume of essays on American history written by my
students. That had been done before, especially in 1932 at
Toronto, and I was not so much surprised as I might otherwise
have been, though I had not been warned at all. I made ac-
knowledgments to my students as best I could and then read
the formal paper which was a little new to most of the audience.
It was a summary of three chapters of Volume i of my Old
South.

December 2g. Saturday. I had an engagement to lunch with
the President today. We sat down together m a second-floor
room of the White House, a little late. For an hour and a
quarter we talked about the European situation. I presented
my plan to prevent war and bring all nations into some sort of
co-operation.

The United States, I said, must co-operate with England and
Holland in the Far East, give the Philippines their independ-
ence and guarantee the existing status in that region, allowing

2i8 DECEMBER 123, 1034 TO MAY 21 , 1035

Japan the privilege of coming into the agreement. Then the
United States ought to join the League of Nations, forcing
Germany and Italy into co-operation with England and France
for peace and reduction of armaments. If the President pressed
a joint resolution upon Congress at the right moment, I thought
he would succeed and in a year or two the commercial relations
of the United States would greatly improve. Then perhaps the
next disarmament conference would really succeed.

The President said: agree as to the Far East and think we
must do something in that region. Japan is annexing parts of
China and plans to annex more and control all of Asia includ-
ing India. We shall spend a billion dollars building warships,
and all of them will be antiquated in ten years.”

As to a joint resolution to join the League, he said, ‘T am
sceptical of public opinion, but I have asked the Senate to
approve our joining the World Court and later I shall ask for
authority to send an ambassador to Geneva.” I thought both
moves might test public opinion, but indicated that delay might
defeat the final purpose. I also told him that Baron von Bulow,
second ranking official in the Foreign Office, and wisest man
there, had said to me : ‘‘We would return to the League im-
mediately the United States joined.”

Many other subjects were touched upon : German militancy,
Italian aggressiveness and British fear of another depression, as
well as the British desire to co-operate in world affairs with the
United States.

December 30. Sunday, A telegram came that my wife’s mother
was dead. Much as we had rejoiced at being able to see her
on this return to America, I now felt that our visit and the
presence of several of her children on Christmas Day, perhaps
the entertaining of us so handsomely, had hastened her end.
The* attention and the pleasure of seeing us all were too
much for her. Anyway a very unselfish, kindly soul had passed
away. Mattie hurried away for the funeral.

January i6, 1335- Wednesday Professor Thomas J. Wertenbaker
met me this afternoon at Trenton in his car. We stopped on
the way to his house at the home of Albert Einstein where we

DECEMBER 2 ^, 1034 TO MAY 21, 1035 210

had tea and talked a little about troubles in Berlin. There were
no personal complaints. Einstein had been expelled from the
University of Berlin in 1933 with all his property confiscated.
A few days ago the American press carried the news from
Berlin that Einstein’s daughter had had all of her property, a
home and a little stretch of land in Potsdam, confiscated. One
daughter had died recently and her husband was part owner;
her sister, the only surviving child of the Einsteins, was also
part owner. These people are now helpless in Germany where
their father was considered the first scientist of his age In spite
of this rough treatment not a word was said of the Hitler
regime that could have been counted unpatriotic, from the
German point of view.

After taking dinner with the Wertenbakers where Abraham
Flexner, long an active representative of the Rockefeller Foun-
dation, was one of the guests, I went to the Princeton audi-
torium where I delivered a lecture on Washington and his
problems, giving special emphasis to American foreign policy.
Once more the audience seemed to sense the mistakes of
American attitudes since 1918. Certainly the university people
of the country wish to see the federal Government do what it
can to advance the cause of the League of Nations as a means
of avoiding war.

January 17. Thmsday. I reached New York at ii. Immedi-
ately calls came from different people : The National City Bank,
the Siemens concern and the Foreign Policy Association. I saw
the bankers at 4 and the Siemens president at 4.30.

I had an engagement with Colonel House for luncheon. He
seemed very well, though he had been ill for a week with a
cold. He talked a good deal about foreign policy ; the need of
American entrance into the League, of co-operation with Eng-
land in the Far East and of a means of coaxing Japan from her
imperialistic drive against China. I had my doubts about his
Japan scheme but he told me that the Ambassador from Japan
was to see him tomorrow. I asked him to write me if Japan
indicated a disposition to co-operate. He promised to do so.

As to President Roosevelt’s attitude, we agreed that he looks
upon the world dilemma much as we do, but that he fears

220 DECEMBER 23 , 1034 TO MAY 2 1, I 935

violent opposition to any progressive move that he might make.
My view is that violent opposition will always be made to any
far-reaching and unselfish policy that may be offered. Besides,
no President has ever been able to accomplish anything worth-
while, during his second term, except for two moves of Wash-
ington, which he had to make but which led to his denunciation
all over the land. Roosevelt must act this year or surrender in
matters of American relations to distraught Europe.

House said he would try to see the President during the next
month or two. He approved the President’s statement of Jan-
uary 29 that he might send an ambassador to Geneva as a
beginning of our entrance into the League. I said : It would be
far preferable to ask Congress to approve our entrance at once,
because of the economic and political difficulties at home, since
there could be no real economic recovery in less than four or
six years. The President would have no real power during his
second term, if re-elected. Colonel House agreed. However,
I doubt whether Roosevelt or any other President of our time
would venture such an unpopular move with the masses who
have been propagandized for fourteen years against any con-
nection or co-operation anywhere.

January 31. Thursday. This morning the newspapers brought
the story of the Senate defeat of Roosevelt’s request for Amen-
can entrance into the World Court. Two days before the vote,

I saw Senator Robinson, majority leader, and he was sure of
winning by a margin of seven votes. I was a little doubtful
when I left him. Now he is defeated. Borah, Johnson and
McAdoo were the outstanding opponents of that mild move in
the direction of world co-operation. Borah has long been silly
about foreign relations ; Johnson has howled about debts due
to the United States as though our states had not repudiated
hundreds of millions due to European creditors ; and McAdoo
is reported to be under the Hearst banner.

My first reaction was to write the State Department asking if
it woidd not be wise for me to resign in protest against Senate
minority domination of American foreign policy. It would cre-
ate a sensation, but it would give me the chance to say to the
country how foolish it seemed to me for our people to denounce

221

DECEMBER 23, I934 TO MAY 21 , 1035

minority dictatorships in Europe and then allow a minority of
men, largely under Hearst and Coughlin influence, to rule the
United States in such an important matter.

February i. Friday. I saw Judge Walton Moore, and he ad-
vised against resignation. He said, “We must all fight our cause
out to the end and stick together.” He said that was Secretary
Hull’s position too. But Moore added : “I have never felt quite
so discouraged. Our recovery work is apt to fail if our foreign
policy is dictated by the Senate minority and I see no way to
circumvent that group ”

I said : If I were the President I would await a strategic
moment and then appeal to the country for entrance into the
League of Nations. After that I would have the Democratic
majority present a joint resolution and press it through both
houses. I would challenge all my opponents and have a definite
line-up, even if I had to refuse to run a second time.

Moore was quite struck by this and wondered whether Roose-
velt had really made up his mmd as to the importance of better
world relations. I was also doubtful whether the President was
really concerned, whether the so-called “economic nationalist”
idea of some of his “brain trusters” had not won him over, or
at least confused his thinking a little. Moore was very anxious
for me to see the President. I wrote Secretary McIntyre of
the White House to let Roosevelt know we are sailing Febru-
ary 14 and that if he wished to see me I was ready to call.
However, I was not too optimistic.

At 6 o’clock, I was with Representative Lewis, most coura-
geous member of the House I know. He offered a day or two
ago a joint resolution to the House to overrule the Senate
decision against the World Court. He showed me his pre-
liminary speech and I told him a good deal about the German,
Italian and Japanese dictatorships and their menace to the
whole modem world. He was much interested and said he
would wage his battle the best he could. I think the House
could be rallied almost unanimously if the President’s support
were given to Lewis.

I also told Lewis that Hearst has been supporting and visit-
ing Mussohni for five or six years. I gave him an account of the

222 DECEMBER 23, 1934 TO MAY 2 1, I 935

Hearst visit to Berlin last September and his reported bar-
gain with Goebbels under which the German Propaganda Min-
istry is to have all the Hearst European news at the same time
it goes over to the United States. Lewis vowed utmost secrecy
unless he could get the facts from somebody else. I took the
risk in the hope of rendenng him some aid in his struggle.

Leaving Representative Lewis, I drove to Georgetown to
dine with Rexford Tugwell, Assistant Secretary of Agricultiu'e,
though he knows little of agriculture. A certain well-known
senator was one of the guests ; several others included Repre-
sentatives Carter (Mass.) and Frank ( 111 .) and Senator Josiah
Bailey (North Carolina). From the very beginning, this senator
attacked Roosevelt. He was smgry ■with the President because
he had not backed Senator Cutting, a former supporter of
Roosevelt. He was also disgruntled because Roosevelt had not
agreed with the Progressive group on huge appropriations
which would have led to national bankruptcy. He claimed that
he and Huey Long, the pirate of Louisiana, had caused Roose-
velt’s nomination in 1932.

The attitudes of this man were amazing. He talks like a
National Socialist. He would stop trade with Europe. He ad-
vocated German domination of all Europe, our domination of
the Americas, and Japanese domination of the Far East. He
wishes to see England dominated by Germany, with Canada
falling naturally to the United States. Most of the people at
the dinner agreed with this big business idea of three great
world powers uniting and dominating smaller peoples like the
Poles and the Dutch. It seemed to be based upon hatred of
England and France, on ignorance of the teachings of history,
and on indifference to the cultural appeals of such peoples as
the English, the French and the Dutch, not to mention the
great German intellectual element now so helpless.

I departed with a sense of surprise, wondering whether they
really meant what they advocated. But the senator must have
been sincere when he said he had persuaded Long to vote
against the World Court idea about which Long knew nothing.
I remarked at a quiet moment that I would not speak to Long.
He said, “We shall soon be shooting up people here, like
Hitler does.”

DECEMBER 23, 1934 MAY 21, 1935 223

February 2 . Saturday. I called on Secretary Hull at lo o’clock.
After talking a moment, Secretary Moore came in. It was a
rather sad half hour we had together. Hull said : “I hope you
won’t resign even if you can do nothing now in Berlin. We
also are helpless. All peoples are economically crazy, and our
people are being misled all the time. I cannot see how domestic
recovery can come anywhere so long as international relations
remain so chaotic.” At ii o’clock I returned by automobile
slowly to our remote mountain home which serves me as my
one retreat from a crazy world.

February 6 . Wednesday. I drove slowly down to Washington
to lunch with the President. He was far more cheerful and
optimistic than I or anyone in the State Department had been.

I repeated in confidence the senator’s statements at Mr.
Tugwell’s on February i : that he had actually persuaded
Senator Long to vote against the World Court resolution, and
that he had talked of our coming “shooting-up game.” But
I did not give the senator’s name. Roosevelt at once said:

“It sounds like Senator X .” I did not say yes or no — ^though

he had guessed right — merely that the conversation had been
confidential.

The President went on : Long plans to be a candidate of the
Hitler type for the presidency in 1936. He thinks he will have
a hundred votes in the Democratic convention. Then he will set
up as an independent with Southern and mid-western Progres-
sives, Senator X and others. Thus he hopes to defeat the

Democratic party and put in a reactionary Republican. That
would bring the country to such a state by 1940 that Long
thinks he would be made a dictator. There are in fact some
Southerners looking that way, and some Progressives are drifting
that way. But Cutting of New Mexico wants the presidency too.
He paid tremendous sums in order not to be defeated for the
Senate last fall. He will divide the Progressives and perhaps
defeat Long. Thus it is an ominous situation.

I then talked about German affairs. Hitler’s attitude and the
possible return of Germany to the League of Nations. I added :
If the Senate had adopted your recommendation on January 30,
the United States would have made this certain. The Govern-

224 DECEMBER 23, 1934 TO MAY 21, 1935

ment’s prestige would have been raised immensely, and Ameri-
can commercial relations would have been greatly improved.
Roosevelt agreed but did not seem too regretful about the
Senate vote. I had the feeling that he had not pressed the case
strongly.

I told him Hearst had really done the stunt, and that I
believed Hearst to be an ally of Nazi Germany. I told him I
would send him proof of Hearst’s help of the Italian dictator-
ship when I got back to Berlin. He said he would be greatly
interested. After a few minutes’ talk about the foreign service
and a little about the waste of American diplomats (he said,
“Since Theodore Roosevelt’s time, rich men have injured the
service by enormous expenditures”), I bade him farewell and
emphasized my hopes of his success.

I have the feeling, however, that I am in a position in Ger-
many in which nothing can be done. No amount of optimism
relieves my doubts. Since the January 30 vote of the Senate, a
minority of old-timers in the Senate will insist on guiding
American foreign policy.

February 8 . Friday. I lunched today with the Senate Com-
mittee on Foreign Relations. Borah was absent, but Robinson,
Johnson, George and others were present. Johnson began the
conversations by alluding to the falsities of written history. This
gave me an opportunity and I referred to the debt payments
under Washington and the repudiations of 1830 to 1850. The
California Senator pretended not to be surprised. When I was
asked about European relations, I said : The Senate’s action on
the World Court was a great blunder. It set back our com-
mercial relations and prevented our asking Germany to account
for her treaty violations of last summer before a body which
might not enforce payment of da,mage but which would give
world publicity to the matter, give the United States great
bargaimng advantage, and enhance the government’s prestige
by 50 per cent aU over the world.

Senator Robinson, Roosevelt’s spokesman in the Senate,
agreed at once. Bulkley of Ohio also agreed though he revealed
an isolationist’s attitude which surprised me a little. Senator
George of Georgia also agreed but later argued for a protec-

DECEMBER 23 , I 934 TO MAY 21, 1035 225

tionist policy which Democrats are supposed always to oppose.
Before we adjourned I was told that two Senators had voted
against the World Court adhesion but when they saw that the
President’s resolution was going to be defeated anyway they
changed to the other side. They had voted to please their con-
stituents who did not know much about the subject. This is
one of the weak spots in American democracy, I had the feeling
as the luncheon broke up that a real discussion of the merits
of foreign relations would have changed the Senate’s attitude,
2.^., if there had been a real presentation of the facts and their
probable consequences to the Foreign Relations Committee,

There was some urgent matter before the Senate and all
the members of the committee hurried to their places to vote,
A little later Senator Bulkley introduced me to Senator Nye,
who discussed his armaments investigation most intelligently.
He was far better informed about foreign attitudes than I had
expected. He surprised me when he said : “Secretaries Hull and
Roper have helped me very freely and have only warned
against publicity which might prevent their representatives
abroad from obtaining information so much needed,” The
press had given the public the impression that Hull and Roper
had tried to prevent information from going to the committee
which Nye headed. Nye impressed me as a true public servant.

February 13, Wednesday. I lunched today in New York with
Adolph Ochs and the staff of the New fork Times. John Finley
and eight or ten other distinguished newspaper folk were pre-
sent. The conversation was most interesting; nearly everyone
on the Times was familiar with the European situation. The
simple directness of Ochs, the owner of the Times^ was inter-
esting. There was no evidence of any sectarian anger.

February 14. Thursday. We are on our way back to the critical
post in Berlin. The ocean is expected to be stormy again,
though we are hoping for a better sea than in December.

February 23. Saturday. At last we are here, and the delicate
work of watching and carefully doing nothing begins I am not
happy, i feel the constant risk of never finishing my Old South.

H

226 DECEMBER 23 , 1934 TO MAY 21, 1935

February s6. Tuesday. Today at 12 o’clock I was at the
'For eign Office to pay customary respects to Secretary von Neu-
rath. I gave him special greetings from Secretary Hull, and he
was most cordial, more so than at any other time since I came
here in July, 1933. I wondered if he had heard the rumour that
I was not coming back to Berlin and that Washington would
leave the position vacant indefinitely, a report which a Wash-
ington newspaper man had told me he had from Berlin by wire.

Von Neurath discussed frankly the critical economic and
social situation here, saying it could not endure long unless
world trade improved. I agreed that I feared similar troubles
lay ahead in the United States unless world trade improved.
He was specially strong in his approval of President Roose-
velt’s plan of recovery, and fearful of the Senate’s opposition,
which he said was quite similar to the Reichstag behaviour pre-
ceding the Hitler putsch. So much was said that I returned at
once and wrote a summary to Washington. Von Neurath said
he was afraid our political deals between one sectional interest
and another against real national interests might cause the
overthrow of democracy in the United States.

March i. Friday. We went tonight to our first formal diplo-
matic dinner at the Soviet Ambassador’s palace, the greatest of
all the diplomatic mansions in Berlin, more elaborate even than
the famous old Hindenburg palace on the Wilhelmstrasse
where Bismarck lived for a time. There were forty guests. Von
Neurath being the guest of honour, with Frangois-Poncet,
French Ambassador, next in rank. I had met most of the
people, but I could not remember half of them. Poor Eric
Kleiber, the conductor who had been dismissed in December,
was present. He is a Hebrew, though he had made his peace
with the regime here and we thought him safe. He was dis-
missed because he aillowed a piece of music written by a Jew to
be given m one of his concerts in the Staatsoper. He hung on
to me a little and Von Neurath noticed it. Kleiber goes to the
famous Salzburg festival next summer.

March 4. Monday. All our staff including the attaches went
with us to be presented formally to the new Japanese Ambas-

DECEMBER 23, 1034 TO MAY 21, 1935 227

sador here. It was the usual, formal, useless affair attended by
about 500 people. The Minister of Uruguay, under some ex-
citement, called me aside to say he had news of a Japanese
commission in Chaco trying to buy oil lands and settle 80,000
families there. He asked me to wire Washington. I was doubt-
ful but listened.

March 5. Tuesday. We dined this evening with Von Bulow
and a group of ten or twelve Germans. Finance Minister von
Schwerin-Krosigk was the most distinguished of the guests. The
only noteworthy bit of conversation I had was with Von Bulow
and La Bougie, Minister from Argentina. The topic was Hit-
ler’s refusal yesterday to receive Sir John Simon who was due
here for a conference about armament control and aircraft
limitation. MacDonald, the British Prime Minister, had an-
nounced in a White Book yesterday that the German people
were preparing their youth for war and that England must,
therefore, arm to the limit of her ability to defend herself
against possible attack. This so affronted Hitler that he con-
tracted a deep cold and cabled Sir John Simon, Foreign Secre-
tary under MacDonald, not to come to Berlin !

This had made a sensation of the first order. I remarked to
Von Bulow that I agreed that the English Prime Minister had
made a blunder, but that if I had been the responsible official
here, I would have met Sir John with a big official delega-
tion at the railway station and given him a cordial greeting.
Von Bulow looked nonplussed for a moment and then re-
plied: ‘T incline to agree with you; it would have compelled
the British to apologize and be agreeable.” The Argentine Min-
ister also agreed with me. When I said good evening to Von
Bulow he repeated : ‘‘You and I always agree.” I was not quite
sure he meant it, but two or three times when we have debated
American demands about debts we have actually been in agree-
ment. He IS a representative of the old aristocracy and is
thought to be uncomfortable in his present high position.

March 7. Thursday. I went to the Kaiserhof Hotel to hear
the Labour Front leader. Ley, talk about German labour diffi-
culties, I sat down with the Cuban Minister at a quiet side

228 DECEMBER 23, 1934 MAY 21, 1935

table where beer was promptly served. In a little while Rosen-
berg, under whose direction these meetings are held about once
a month, came to greet me and ask me to join him at his table
where Tugh officials sat. The table was occupied and I asked to
be excused as I liked a quiet corner. It seemed satisfactory.

The lecture was not unlike Rust’s address early in December,
rather cheap, with no real discussion of basic troubles here or
elsewhere. Three times Ley emphasized the idea that all Ger-
man workers must never forget that they are soldiers owing
absolute obedience to the state and permitted to have little
thought of their earnings. Personal dignity and self-sustenance
were not mentioned. “The employer, under the Nazi regime,
does not think of his great plant, hds machines or his earnings;
he thinks his greatest obligation is to give work to his employees,
anH render service to Germany. The labourer is absolutely loyal
to his employer and has no idea of resisting or of organizing
for strikes.” There may be some people of these qualities but
I do not believe half what Ley said. There is no way, however,
to learn the truth since no one dares express his convictions.

March 8 . Friday. My wife and I dined with the Fursten-
bergs, a wealthy banker family living in a beautiful home on
the old Konigin Augustastrasse, not far from us. Dr. Kuhlmann,
former Cabinet member, wealthy head of great steel plants in
the Saar Territory and a clever writer for American periodicals,
was one of the guests. Another was Max Warburg, so uneasy
last August or September when he visited me in the Embassy.
His brother is Felix Warburg of New York. Both are bankers
of great wealth. Warburg seemed quite secure this evening.
His brother was not so confident when I saw him in New York
on January 17.

There were other guests claiming to be friends of Dr.
Schacht, as they indicated more than once. One of them, also a
bank president in Berlin, remarked that Hitler’s attitude towards
paying debts contracted under the Bruening regime, his prede-
cessor, was like the Soviets’ attitude towards debts contracted
with the Umted States by the Kerensky regime Both believed
It was an honour not to pay them. I wonder whether this is not
also Schacht’s attitude. The best of the Germans find it impos- '

DECEMBER 23, 1034 TO MAY 21, 1935 229

sible to forgive the United States for participating in the World
War. The Germans do not discuss this, even friends like
Oncken, Marcks or Windelband, but they feel that a great
victory over all Europe was denied them. So the debts due to
the United States, though contracted after 1924, are really of
doubtful obligation, so far as the National Socialist nation is
concerned.

March ii. Monday. I drove out to Professor Hermann
Oncken’s, where I met an interesting crowd last autumn. He
told me that one of his students, only twenty-nine years old
but an influential Party member, had violently attacked a book
of his some time ago because of a description of the Cromwell
regime which seemed to parallel the Hitler autarchy here. The
attack was given wide publicity and Rosenberg, the editor of
the Volkischei Beobachter^ official organ of the Nazi Party, in-
tervened with Rust and caused Oncken to be retired from his
position as head of the history department in the University
of Berlin. But the protest of university students was so nearly
unanimous when his ‘‘retirement” was announced that Rust
withdrew the recall for the rest of the winter semester. How-
ever, he does not know whether he is to go on with his work
in the coming spring semester or not.

Oncken is perhaps the foremost historian in Germany and
his “retirement” without reference to his health condition or
his own wishes will be widely discussed in the United States.
I do not think Oncken is in any way radically opposed to the
present regime, now that it has swung so completely over to
the conservative side. He does, however, insist on a professor's
right to publish a book without submitting it for the approval
of the government.

Professor Oncken said, however, that nearly all university
people in Germany are uneasy and that they are writing him
their sympathies and approval. He also added that the univer-
sity people are allying themselves with the Lutheran Church
and contending for the rights of free teaching and preaching.
He expects another struggle during the next few months.

I am inclined to think Hitler will side with Rosenberg whose
constant preaching of a new German Christianity — the worship

230 DECEMBER 23, 1934 TO MAY 21, 1935

of Wotan and other ancient German gods — is the new Nazi
religion. Curiously enough, the defeat of Rosenberg’s reversion
to German barbarism depends on the Roman Catholics’ support
of Lutheranism. The Pope is in a tight place. He must help
Lutherans and Lutheran universities to save Catholicism in
Germany. At the same time he must support Nazi philosophy
m the hope of defeating Communism in Russia and checking
the advance of socialism in France and Spain.

March i 6 . Saturday. Today’s German papers are full of
violent denunciations of the French anxiety revealed in Pre-
mier Flandin’s speech yesterday before the French Chamber
of Deputies. Flandin’s speech and French approval of the plan
to increase the French army by doublmg the term of each
soldier’s service were both replies to Goering’s announcement
last Monday of increased air training here for defence against
bombing planes. All German papers, acting upon instructions
from the government, declared that the French act was a scrap-
ping of European disarmament. I think the Goering air pro-
gramme is truly belligerent but France, Italy and England
have armed in violation of the Versailles Treaty too.

However, this afternoon a New York Times correspondent
called to tell me that at 5 o’clock the German Propaganda Min-
istry officials had called in all the press people to inform the
world that Germany had begun to reorganize the Reichswehr
into a standing army of 400,000 to 500,000 men. This seems
to have excited the press people, but the work has been going
on for at least a year. This is the German reply to the French
decision of yesterday that they would increase their strength.
All this adds to the significance of the coming Sir John Simon
visit on March 26. This is what Von Wiegand says is a repeti-
tion of the events preceding 1914 when the British sent a
Cabinet official here to know what the Germans meant by
increasing their army and navy at that time. I picked up the
facts from newspaper folk, for no oflBcial note had been sent
to the Embassy when I left, and cabled them to Washington.

March ly. Sunday. After an hour in the Chancery office, I
drove with Captain Keppler, our Naval Attache, and Captain

DECEMBER 2 $, I 934 TO MAY 21, 1935 23 I

Crockett, enthusiastic Military Attach^ to the famous Staatsoper
on Unter den Linden to hear a talk about the fallen heroes of
Germany — a sort of German Decoration Day service. As I
entered the reservation for the diplomatic corps. Von Bassewitz
showed me to the ranking place in the box. I asked : Is not the
French Ambassador here? “No, nor the Nuncio,” he replied.
Being seated some ten minutes I was a little troubled by the
absence of all ambassadors except myself.

The papers this morning had announced that the French,
English, Italian and Polish representatives had been before the
Chancellor to hear an official declaration of his enlargement of
the army. It now occurred to me that they had all agreed not
to come. Why had not the British informed me? We had for
more than a year co-operated in most matters of this sort. Also
thejapanese Ambassador was not present. Why? The Japanese
are known to approve of German attitudes. I suspect it was
hinted to him by the German Foreign Office not to come. He
would be counted an ally. I was the only one of whom no com-
plaint could be made on either side. So here I was.

March i 8 . Monday. Monsieur Bdrard came to see me at my
request at 12 o’clock. He said his government was pressing
actively for an agreement between England, France and Italy
to present a united protest against German military prepara-
tions. His ambassador was even thinking of recommending the
withdrawal of the ambassadors of those countries if the Ger-
mans continued violations of the Treaty of Versailles. I said,
half jokingly : I believe I would ask to be recalled too, if those
three powers withdraw. However, England has already indi-
cated a disposition to send Sir John Simon, her Foreign
Secretary, here in a few days, notwithstanding the affronts of
the last ten days. This greatly perturbs the French. Italy is
reported to be co-operating with France.

At 5.30 I called on Dr. Schacht to ask him what he had
learned at Basle when he had met with the international bankers
to discuss the tangled financial situation. He reported that
Montagu Norman, head of the Bank of England, was in favour
of stabilizing the pound and dollar, but that the British Treas-
ury was opposed. This means the British Government is using

232 DECEMBER 23, 1934 TO MAY 21, 1935

the cheap pound in order to compete with American industrial-
ists who are trying to capture British colonial trade, having
already a monopoly of the American home market. The cheap
pound is a means of competing with American high tariffs.
Schacht was not optimistic. He said : ‘Tn case there is no stabil-
ization, we shall have an economic crash next October.’’ I am
not of contrary opinion though my knowledge of the compli-
cated financial structure of modem society is so vague that I
cannot have definite convictions.

Turning to Schacht, who seemed to wish to talk about gen-
eral subjects, I said : How about the universal military service
which was decreed yesterday? He replied : “It means peace for
Europe. My son is now serving his year and all Germans must
do this for the security of their country.” I reported the mili-
tary show which I had witnessed yesterday. But he said, “This
doesn’t mean war.” This is absolutely contrary to his earnest
statement to me last autumn.

He then added: “Hitler quoted Wilson’s Fourteen Points
as a bid for a European conference on that basis; will your
country enter such a conference?” I expressed doubt, though
I did not disagree with him as to the world-wide benefits of
American co-operation in a League conference. I told him the
President had favoured co-operation with the League but that
public opinion in the United States seemed to be hostile. I
mentioned the Senate’s vote on the World Court on January 30,
but I did not consider that as indicating public opinion ac-
curately, Hearst having made a great row and scared some
Senators. Schacht re-emphasized Hitler’s use of the Fourteen
Points and seemed to think it was really serious. I thought it
was simply to irritate France.

At 8.30 I asked Berard to call a moment at our house. He
came in hurriedly just as we finished dinner. I wished to refer
to the confidential talk I had had today, which I did. I gave
him in all confidence Schacht’s statement about Hitler’s refer-
ence to the Fourteen Points. Berard said: “I never trust
Schacht.” Berard was hurrying off to Paris with instructions
from his ambassador.

March 21, Thursday. Events have remained exciting for the

DECEMBER 23, 1034 TO MAY 21, 1035 233

last two days, England agreeing to send Sir John Simon to
Berlin next Sunday and Germany agreeing that Hitler will
discuss world peace matters, possibly a disarmament conference.
France and Italy made their protests today and the German
Foreign Office replied in such a way as to try to separate the
two Latin powers. The French Ambassador was treated a little
coldly and the public given to understand this.

Learning this morning that a French economic journal had
published an article saying I had sent the President a twenty-
page survey of Germany and predicted an economic collapse
next April, I wrote a note to the French Ambassador asking
if it were possible that Monsieur Berard had given out any-
thing like that after conversations we had had. In the afternoon
Monsieur Berard came to the office and denied all responsibility
for the story. He had just returned from Paris and had not
seen the sensational article. I was then convinced that he had
not been responsible. But the article claimed that our Embassy,
on the basis of a scientific survey, had warned the United States
against continued investments, predicting Hitler would continue
in power only a few years, that war was in prospect and that
collapse was coming. I gave a statement to the press people
that I had sent no such document, and at 6 o^clock, after I had
returned to the house, the Havas agency called asking for a
statement to send to Paris. This I gave, though I added that
we sent economic studies each month, but without any such
prophecies as to a definite collapse, I cannot imagine how this
story got out for it is said to have come from a French corre-
spondent here.

March 22. Friday. At 0 o’clock my wife and I went, as Ernst
Hanfstaengl’s guests, to Mussolini’s play called The Hundred
Days '— description of Napoleon’s last phase. We were in the
same box with Madame Cerruti. The film showed how the
Italians and Germans regard their leaders as modern Napoleons.
The audience was not displeased and Napoleon, portrayed by
a German actor, Krauss, received much, but not wild, applause.

When I was a student at Leipzig, I noticed a German-erected
monument of Napoleon on the field of that famous slaughter
and I also noticed that professors regarded him as a model

H2

234 DECEMBER 23, 1934 21, 1935

leader and commander. If only he had been a German ! Hitler
now regards himself as a Napoleon abolishing democratic gov-
ernments all over Germany and making Germany the dominat-
ing power in Europe Hanfstaengl thinks he is advancing his
own rating with his Fuehrer by giving these shows to great
masses of people. I am not sure the Germans will really like
The Hundred Days.

March 25. Monday. This morning the Japanese Ambassador
called He pressed me to call with him at the British Embassy
and ask for an interview with Sir John Simon to learn what
was being planned about the German navy and a possible Rus-
sian pact. I talked as agreeably as I could but declined an
immediate answer to his request. I would not think of going
with him on such a mission. It would make a sensation all over
the United States.

It was clearer than ever to me that there is an agreement
between Germany and Japan. The Ambassador spoke of dining
or lunching with Goermg, Goebbels and other high German
officials the last few days. He referred to them in a way show-
ing personal vanity and satisfaction. I would not have alluded
to such appointments if I had made them. I have an instinctive
distaste of shaking hands with such men, even though they
consider themselves modern Caesars. I suspected the Japanese
Ambassador or his government had planned to see if I could
be manoeuvred into this position. He went away bowing and
scraping in protocol style. I promised to call him in case I saw
“any prospect of seeing Sir John Simon,”

At 8.30 we appeared in the elaborate palace of the Belgian
Minister to dine. There were about forty guests at table, all
in full dress. There was the usual cordiality but no talk of value.
Later in the evening, sitting at a table with the host, a German
general, the Swiss Minister and one other German, I said in
humorous strain: I had a strange dream Sunday night. “What
was it?” said the Swiss. I said* It might be dangerous to tell.
“Oh, no, no,” were the replies. I then said that I had dreamed
that the Hohenzollerns had been restored and that I had a
talk with the Crown Prince on the throne or near it.

The Belgian was silent; the Swiss seemed puzzled. But the

DECEMBER 23, I934 TO MAY 21 , 1935 235

German general commented that Von Blomberg had paid no
tribute to the Kaiser or the Crown Prince at the memorial
service Sunday, although he had complimented the famous
Ludendorff, now an enemy of Hitler, and lauded Von Hinden-
burg’s military services. Von Blomberg, the general said, had
thought of praising the Kaiser but had purposely omitted it
at the time. The general said Von Blomberg was entirely in
sympathy with the Hohenzollerns.

March 2y Wednesday, This afternoon we gave a reception
to about 250 German official and private folk and to the diplo-
matic corps. It was not disagreeable, though tiresome. Most
official Germans gave all kinds of excuses for not being able to
be present, part of which were perfectly honest, as I judge, but
some were not.

The most distinguished of the German guests was the well-
known General von Hammerstein who slipped out of Berlin
last June lest he be murdered, according to stories told me at
the time. He seemed comfortable and would have talked freely
if there had been time and a chance to sit in a quiet corner.

March 31, Sunday, I was in bed all day yesterday. Today I
went to the Embassy office and found it too cold, as I did most
of last week. A German janitor can hardly imagine keeping
the temperature at 24° Centigrade or 75° Fahrenheit to be
important, especially if he must rise early in the morning. I
gave him another warning and came home.

Rabbi Lazaron of Baltimore, a generous, humane man who
is in Berlin in the hope of helping his people but fearful that he
may be ordered out of the country — I am also — lunched with
us. Others were the famous Hoetzsch, my classmate at Leip-
zig, whose recent work on the diplomatic correspondence on the
Russian side in the World War was featured in the London
Times last week, and Dr, Richter, formerly Minister of Educa-
tion, with his wife.

They were most interesting and witty conversationalists.
Richter’s father-in-law, Professor Schmitt, was rector of the
University of Berlin for a time under the Ebert regime. Richter
himself was dismissed from the university faculty in 1933

236 DECEMBER 23, 1934 TO MAY 21, 1935

because he was not in sympathy with the Hitler programme.
Hoetzsch was a member of the Reichstag under the republic
but is now very guarded in all his references to controversial
subjects. He will be entitled to a pension from the university
in a year or two unless he publishes some book or article which
puts him in bad, which is very difficult to avoid since he is an
internationalist of wide reputation

Poor Lazaron revealed great concern because so many
wealthy Jews have surrendered to the Nazi leadership and are
influential financial aids to Dr. Schacht who thinks their assist-
ance is very important in the present economic situation.

April 4, Thursday. I received a telegram from Secretary
Hull asking whether war in Europe is imminent. I had an
engagement with Von Neurath at 12 o'clock to speak about a
minor matter. So I decided to see Sir Eric Phipps, whose office
is near the German Foreign Office, at 11.30. He happened to
be free. In the conversation it was made clear that the visits of
Sir John Simon and the young Eden had been of negative
value.

Hitler had sat in the conference in his brown-shirted S.A.
uniform, the others all in civilian clothes. Hitler made it clear
he would not agree to the so-called ^^eastern Locarno pacts” or
guarantees of existing boundaries between Germany, Poland,
the little Baltic states and Russia. But he said he would not go
to war, only insist upon treaties being kept. As to the annexa-
tion of Austria, he vowed that there would be no German ag-
gression. However, he insisted on the same right to send help
to his cohorts there as the Italians had sent to theirs, both coun-
tries being engaged simultaneously in rival propaganda. As to
Russian-German co-operation. Hitler said there was no possi-
bility. Most of these points I had telegraphed to Washington.
Sir Eric simply confirmed them and indicated once more grave
doubts as to the maintenance of peace in Europe. One thing is
certain: Hitler aims at war. When he will strike depends on
preparations and a proper incident.

At 12 I sat down for a talk with Von Neurath. After
offering him the twenty-one-volume diary and documents pre-
pared some years ago by Hunter Miller, historical adviser to

DECEMBER 2 $, I934 TO MAY 21 , I935 ^^37

the State Department, and receiving his cordial thanks, I raised
the question of German military policy. I told him first how
general is the feeling in the United States that Germany aims
to go to war relatively soon. He vowed there is no move towards
war. He pretended great concern that Mussolini should have
almost doubled the strength of the Italian army by recent
orders, also that Mussolini should have published a statement
two days ago demanding the encirclement of Germany and
blaming England for not uniting with France and Italy to make
it possible. In spite of this he said we shall have a general peace
agreement within a few weeks. I inferred that he meant the
coming conference at Geneva, where the League chiefs are to
meet on April 15.

I reminded Von Neurath that all Germans seem military-
minded, that all their public demonstrations are in full war
equipment. I also said that Germany circulated, widely, im-
perialistic maps, that is, maps which show that the Nazi leaders
demand the annexation of border countries like Holland, Aus-
tria, parts of Switzerland and the Polish Corridor. He said
these maps were published by irresponsible people. But I said
they bear Goering’s name and are to be seen all over Germany
in hotels and railway stations. He allowed that to be true but
said it meant nothing as to German foreign policy.

I said : It convinces the outside world that Germany means
to re-apply the old imperialist policy, not unlike that of Theo-
dore Roosevelt. Marching everywhere in uniforms and claim-
ing all border areas where German-speaking people live are
strong evidences of the war spirit here. The Foreign Minister
said : “Imperialistic talk and attitudes worry me too.” The con-
versation lasted half an hour and it convinced me once more
that Von Neurath and perhaps all the higher officials of the
Foreign Office are fully aware of the dangers of Hitlerism and
that they press for their points of view in vain. Hitler really
aims to annex all these areas and will in due time go to war
for that purpose.

I came away without any valid assurances, just as I left the
British Embassy without being convinced that England was
doing anything but playing politics. Perhaps that is all the
present government in London can do Lloyd George is playing

238 DECEMBER 23, 1934 TO MAY 21 , I935

a clever game and radical Labour is, as always, strongly pacifist.
The encirclement of Germany is at present not possible and the
1914 situation is reproduced in most of its features. Will Europe
go to war? I think not in a year or two.

At 4.30 I sat down to get the reactions of Fran9ois-Poncet,
the French Ambassador. Without telling him that Washington
had wired about the danger of war, I pressed for his opinion as
to the possibilities of the Stresa conference on April 1 1 . He at
once revealed the French exasperation at the English procedure
of the last month. He was not sure what Mussolini and the
French Foreign Minister, Laval, could do except to agree on
encirclement of Germany as the only means of keeping the
peace and then put the agreement before Sir John Simon, Then
he said the English would refuse and another adjournment
would follow, leaving Germany again free to arm.

He said he did not think Hitler would precipitate war, but
only because he is not yet ready, “We shall not have war the
next year or two unless some break comes over Austria, Danzig
or Czechoslovakia. Then Hitler would persuade the whole Ger-
man people to march again. If England won’t join us now there
is going to be war.” I learned of a confidential interview with
Benes, about the end of March, in which the Czech Premier
said his country would fight for its independence if their allies
came to their aid; otherwise, there was nothing to do but
capitulate to Germany’s terms of friendship. I wonder if Benes
doubts the validity of French and English promises.

I went to dinner this evening at Minister La Bougie’s, of the
Argentine. Sitting on the right of Madame La Bougie, I heard
from her that Goering had given her and her husband a grand
dinner the night before which indicated the present vain Nazi
hope of winning South American countries to their side in
the event of war. She indicated confidentially her very severe
criticism of the present regime.

On my right sat the wife of the Swiss Minister who, on Mon-
day last, made a formal protest against the Nazi kidnapping
of a Jew, named Jacob, who has been writing able anti-Nazi
articles for the Swiss and French press the last two years. Jacob
was a German citizen before 1933. He is now in jail, to be
tried for treason. Von Bulow declared to the Swiss Minister

DECEMBER 23, I 934 TO MAY 21, 1935 239

that Germany would not release Jacob nor would they submit
evidence that Jacob had not been kidnapped, which was the
Swiss claim. The German-Swiss treaty of 1921 is to be ignored.

As the Swiss Minister’s wife drifted a little in her conversa-
tion from subject to subject, I said : I have just been reading
what Lecky, the great British historian, said about your famous
Zwingli and his devotion to the idea of personal freedom,
two hundred years before the rest of Europe recognized the
valuable philosophy of freedom of thought and speech. She
affected not to know anything of Zwingli ; perhaps she did not,
for few diplomats know anything of history, only the mere
conventions.

Apnl 5. Friday, I wired Secretary Hull the facts about the
war danger here : The regime is aggressive. The responsible or
irresponsible trio, Hitler, Goering and Goebbels, might easily
do a wild thing, knowing so little of past history. All of them
are of a murderous frame of mind. The economic dilemma
might precipitate war as a possible way out, but Schacht has
absolute power and this the German people so respect in any
leader that they will submit to other temporary solutions.
Hence I think no debacle is imminent.

The Foreign Secretary says : ‘'No war,” though he is troubled
about Mussolini. The British Ambassador says : “No war in a
year or two but war is the purpose here.” Finally the French
Ambassador says : “No war yet, unless some break in Danzig
or Austria gives the regime a chance to arouse German en-
thusiasm.” It was a sad story; but I think a true one. If the
telegram were to be revealed as the Miller report of last
October was, it might greatly anger the German authorities.

April g. Tuesday, We had been engaged for weeks to dine
with the Solmssens, so we could not get to the first Goering
wedding show at the Opera House on time. The talk at Solms-
sens was in ridicule of the Nazi leaders, Goering, Goebbels and
Hess, for trying to terrorize all Danzig people into voting for
Nazi Party control there last Sunday. Many violences were
visited upon the people who did not have Nazi flags over their
houses. Consuls of some countries had their windows smashed

240 DECEMBER 23 , 1934 TO MAY 21 , 1935

because they had not erected flags. The Nazi chiefs thought
they would surely win 75 per cent of the vote and then control
the Danzig Council by two-thirds and demand that the League
of Nations allow Danzig to return to Germany. All reports
show that Danzig would have voted 90 per cent to return to
Germany, but not while the Nazis were in power. In conse-
quence the vote was lower than in 1933

The criticism of the lack of wisdom m sending Goering,
Goebbels and Hess to Danzig to overawe the people was sharp
There was also rather free fun-making of the wedding show
that Goering is giving tonight and tomorrow in the Cathedral.

We had to beg to be excused after we rose from the table
in order to appear at the Goering reception in the Opera House
at 9.15. We were sorry to leave but the French Ambassador,
in the absence of the Nuncio, had been compelled, as he said,
to agree to attend the wedding and advise other members of
the diplomatic crowd to be there. Hence we had accepted the
tickets.

We arrived just in time to join the rush of guests to shake
hands with the bride and groom, who were standing in the
great hall on the second floor of the Opera. The ceremony con-
tinued for an hour. Then all went to their places and witnessed
the completion of the opera. Krauss was the Austrian Nazi con-
ductor brought here to take the place of Furtwaengler, removed
last December. Krauss gave every sign of great joy at the op-
portunity to give a musical show for Goering. Not a judge of
music, I cannot say whether the performance was good or not.
I did not enjoy it.

April 12, Friday. I learned from the French Counsellor to-
night that Counsellor Newton of the British Embassy went to
the German Foreign Office to know if Germany would approve
the French-Russian treaty of a day or two ago, as it was only
a defence parantee. Perhaps the Germans might then fall in
with English demands at Stresa where the English, French
and Italians were in conference about armaments and additional
peace pacts. Von Neurath replied, to Newton’s surprise, that
Germany would approve, or at least not oppose, any peaceful
treaty. This was telegraphed to Stresa. While this surprised the

DECEMBER 23, I934 TO MAY 21 , I935 24I

French not a little, it did not surprise me, since I have re-
peatedly been told by the Foreign Office people that Germany
would return to the League of Nations whenever other powers
agreed to recognize her equal rights.

We were dining at the house of the Greek Minister who had
been in great distress, until a week or two ago, about the Veni-
zelos revolt in his country, so much so that he had withdrawn
invitations to a dinner about the middle of March. There were
twenty-one guests including the Russian and the Japanese Am-
bassadors. I noticed the heavy silver plates on which we were
all served. “English silver,” the hostess said as I remarked its
beauty. After the second course, I noticed the same silver plates
come in again. This is one of the common habits of diplomatic
people to impress their guests with evidence of wealth. How far
this goes one can only know by attending dinners. Home at
1 1. 1 5, after a wasted evening.

April 13. Saturday. William Bullitt, Ambassador to Russia,
was with us today and we had a party of twelve people. The
Russian and Polish Ambassadors and the Ministers from
Yugoslavia and Venezuela attended. Dr. Dieckhoff and Dr.
Hoetzsch were also with us. Bullitt still impressed me as quite
proud of himself, and rather more boyish than one would ex-
pect for a man of his years. He told me of a conversation with
the' French Foreign Minister, Laval, in which the defensive
alliance between France and Russia was discussed. It is to be
signed on April 23.

A peculiar story, perhaps characteristic of Nazi Germany,
came to me today from a reliable but secret source. It only re-
veals what must happen in a society which permits autocracy,
especially one commanded by three such men as rule here.

From S.S. circles, I hear that General von Schleicher’s next
of kin, incited by the head of the army. General von Fritsch,
are smng the German state for damages in connection with the
shooting of their distinguished kinsman last June. It will be
recalled that the Reichswehr Ministry refused to give back to
the S.S. the files and records of the shooting, after having ob-
tained them for examination. The day before yesterday, four
S.S. men called on the major in the Reichswehr Ministry in

242 DECEMBER 23 , 1934 TO MAY 21, 1935

whose keeping these files are held. At the point of a pistol they
demanded the records. Feigning to acquiesce, he bent down as
if to take the documents out of his desk drawer but instead
pressed an alarm button concealed there and gave them other
papers to gain time. Shortly thereafter, the guards responded
to the bell and came and arrested the four S.S. men, took them
to the cellar of the building and there shot them. The ashes of
the bodies were sent in a box to Himmler.

April 16. Tuesday, In view of the tense situation all over
Europe, I went at 12 o’clock to talk with Von Bulow. He has
impressed me as more frank' and liberal than Von Neurath, but
I can never be quite certain. We talked a half hour and I
learned little. He said Hitler could never join an eastern
Locarno pact for the maintenance of existing boundaries, though
he did not use direct statements from Hitler He was certain
Hider meant to maintain peace, but Soviet Russia, he said, had
a treaty with Czechoslovakia whereby a vast number of Soviet
planes could land at their air fields. “This means a close
alliance with France and aggression against Germany.”

I said : We have information that Czechoslovakia is moving
towards the English compromise viewpoint, and is not so close
to France as before. Von Bulow answered, “No, Benes, the
Prime Minister, is, as usual, deceiving your Minister at Prague.
The Czechs are absolutely allied to France, and the new
French-Russian treaty only strengthens this alliance.”

I asked him if Germany would send delegates to the Rome
Conference on May 20, called by Mussolini. He said : “Yes, but
we have not yet been invited.” Will you agree to Austrian
independence? “Oh, yes, we could not stand an Anschluss,
although we know most Austrians wish to join Germany. But
Italy pays the salaries of Austrian generals and other officials.
That is the way the government goes on.” He was not hopeful
of results from the Rome Conference, because Bulgaria will
not co-operate with Hungary and Rumania and because there
can be no agreement with Italy and France about Austria. This
seemed inconsistent since he had said Hitler would not have an
Anschluss with Austria. If so, then why no agreement as to
Austrian independence?

DECEMBER 23 , I934 TO MAY 21 , I935 243

He asked about American attitudes and I said : Nearly every-
body over there thinks Germany is headed for war and that
affects our policy very seriously. He repeated the peace idea but
remarked that a returning German official had said that when
he was in Washington all the papers were saying Hitler de-
manded the Corridor from Poland, the German districts in
Czechoslovakia and Austria, The press people had gone to
Ambassador Luther to know if this were true and Luther had
refused to deny it, which convinced the American people that
Hitler would demand this much. Then said Von Bulow:
“Luther cabled us and we at once denied the story; only it was
too late as news.”

I thought, but did not say, that this meant the Ambassador
feared Hitler did demand the areas named and hence had not
felt free to make a denial. In my opinion, Hitler does intend
to take these eastern areas at the first opportunity, but he wishes
some other nation to make the first aggressive move. Then
Hitler would claim he was repelling aggression and demand
annexations. Von Bulow remarked that the Geneva Conference
today would not amount to anything. France would defeat
anytiung Germany might propose.

The Polish Ambassador, Lipski, lunched with me and we
talked an hour afterward, but the only information was that
Poland, despite the pact of January, 1934, is still uneasy as to
her situation and must try to get on with Germany and Russia
too, or there will be an invasion.

April ig. Friday. The conversations of the i6th were serious
enough, but events of the 1 7th were more serious. The Stresa
agreement of England, France and Italy on the 12th had been
troublesome, but the calling of a Little Entente conference in
Rome on May 25 to settle the fate of Austria was more serious
than Von Bulow indicated. He had said to me that Von Papen
had been here on April 15 and reported that practically all
Austrians wished to be aimexed to Germany. I had not
asked any question on this point except: Would Germany
participate in the Rome Conference and would Germany
give up the Anschluss idea, so dear to Hitler? He had
said: “Anschluss would be a terrible thing for Germany.” I

244 DECEMBER 2 $, I 934 TO MAY 21, I 935

suppose he meant : now. Certainly all Germans I know wish
annexation.

I do not know what Sir Enc Phipps said on the i6th after
my interview. But yesterday I learned that on Wednesday, the
1 7th, Hitler, at Berchtesgaden in upper Bavaria, ordered Von
Bulow to ask Sir Eric to the Foreign Office and give him a re-
buke from Hitler, to be cabled to London. It is said Von Bulow
was violent and insulting. Today the Berlin papers say the
Italian Ambassador was included in the rebuke. Anyway the
press of Paris and London is reported this morning to have
been greatly excited, some English papers saying 10,000 air-
planes are the only guarantees of British security against Nazi
Germany.

The reason for Von Bulow’s rebuke was the unanimous rul-
ings of the League meeting on the evening of the 1 7th and the
morning of the i8th that Germany’s armament decree of March
16 was a violation of the Versailles Treaty which could not be
permitted again. The warning clause was tliat if Germany
placed any soldiers in the neutralized zone along the Rhine it
would be considered as the beginning of war.

The situation of Europe is certainly critical, but the announce-
ment of the details of the French-Russian Treaty as given out
yesterday at Geneva is proof of the encirclement of Germany
which Hitler might have foreseen in October, 1933, when he
suddenly left the League of Nations and ordered his first plebis-
cite. England, France, Italy and Russia are all in agreement to
fight if Germany makes an unfriendly move anywhere. They
would be tough even for a thoroughly armed Third Reich.

Moreover Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden and trembling
Denmark are all on the side of England and France. Perhaps
they would not fight, except Belgium, in the case of war. But
unlike i 9 I 4 ~^ 2 j they would all aid England as much as they
could in a peaceful way. In my judgment, the Rome Con-
ference should declare Austria finally and absolutely inde-
pendent, and Rumania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Aus-
tria should all join a co-operative union, with Hungary and
Bulgaria sympathetic, Germany would be helpless, and an eco-
nomic boycott could follow if Germany should go on arming.

Never, in my opinion, has a great people been guided by a

DECEMBER 23, I934 TO MAY 21 , 1035 245

less sensible group. Hitler knows no history, Goering is even
less informed, Goebbels is utterly incompetent except in his Ger-
man propaganda, and success in this may not be real. These
three supremely egotistical men are supposed to be together at
Berchtesgaden today trying to decide upon German policy, all
pretending to think that go per cent of all Germans are behind
them. What they will do, one can hardly guess, but wisdom can
scarcely be expected of three such men.

April 20. Saturday. According to the custom of diplomats
here I went this morning to the old Bismarck-Hindenburg
palace to write my name in a book of congratulations to Hitler,
President and Fuehrer of deluded, helpless Germany. As I
drove into the Wilhelmstrasse from Unter den Linden, I noted
that tens of thousands of Germans, men, women and children,
stood behind ropes on both sides of the street for two whole
blocks, waiting for a ghmpse of the Fuehrer whenever he may
come out of the palace where he is spending the day in confer-
ences, I suppose, with officers of the Reichswehr, perhaps with
Von Neurath.

Entering the hall I met the new Minister Gie from South
Africa in top hat and formal clothes, gloves and cane in hand.
He was a little embarrassed for me when I shook hands with
him without gloves or top hat. The Minister from unhappy and
poverty-stricken Rumania was not quite so formally dressed as
Mr. Gie. In a half-minute my name was on the book and I
drove past the soldiers again.

At 12 o’clock. Dr. Goebbels delivered an address. It is written
in the best German I hear or read these days. He spoke over the
radio to all Germans, also to Latin and North Americans who
cared to listen. I wonder how many cut their radios off. I was in
the office, busy getting off dispatches to Washington, and conse-
quently had no chance to listen to the shrewd propagandist
whose role here is so important that Hitler would not dare dis-
miss him, much as the more sensible Germans hate him. What
he said about Hitler represents, however, almost exactly what
80 per cent of the Germans think. In one part of the address
Goebbels indicated what a calamity it would be if any one of
the three “immortals,” Hitler, Goering and Goebbels, were to

246 DECEMBER 23, I934 TO MAY 21 , I935

be killed, I am a little surprised that he said this, since there
are thousands of Germans who would kill the Fuehrer if they
had a chance and pay the penalty with their own lives. At least
this is common talk m indirect ways.

We sent a telegram to Washington at 5 o’clock giving the
gist of a defiant reply of Hitler to the League of Nations mem-
bers who voted for resolutions in which the German proclama-
tion of March 16 was denounced. When the Chancellor-Presi-
dent handed his document to his publicity department, he
mounted his airplane and went back to Berchtesgaden where he
spends more time than here in the executive office which once
held Bismarck so closely. Hitler holds Cabinet sessions only
occasionally, and issues decrees which the members never really
sanction by voting their convictions. That is all he does in his
high office.

April 20. Sunday. Easter. Strange that Hitler’s birthday
should happen to be the day after Good Friday. Since Goering
was a nationzil hero last week when he was married and received
such extraordinary gifts, it was necessary to give Hitler an
equally sensational “Heil.” So we hear today he is to receive
from the people a gift of twenty-seven war aircraft. Easter
time!

It turns out to be an interesting season, four days in succes-
sion, just after the League of Nations rebuke of Germany for
its rearmament challenge. Friday, the crucifixion day; Satur-
day, Hitler’s birthday; Sunday, resurrection day; and Monday,
the usual holiday. Everybody in official circles here is out of
town, most of them in South Germany. I am quiet at home
trying to put in a little time on my long-delayed Old South.

April 25. Thursday. We had our first formal dinner tonight
since our return from Washington, two months ago, although
we had had many luncheons and dinners for groups of ten or
twelve. It was a party of twenty. The most interesting person
present was the Yugoslav Minister, about seventy years old
but witty and outspoken in his fun-making of the Rosenberg
activity in Germany. The Japanese Ambassador talked again
of his close relations with Goering and Goebbels whom nearly

DECEMBER 23, 1034 TO MAY 21, 1935 247

all diplomats dread to see. I have been at Goering’s house, a
palace more elaborate than Hitler’s, and have had dinner at
Goebbels’ rather modest place. Neither of them has ever been
in our house though both had been invited a little before June
30 , 1934 -

April 26, Friday, A party of some twenty young people came
in on a sort of welcoming party for Martha who arrived today.
Some were interesting persons. The most troubled, though it
was wonderfully concealed, was Prince Louis Ferdinand, grand-
son of the exiled Kaiser, heir to the imperial throne if it ever
be re-created. He is about twenty-seven years old, tall, hand-
some and very clever. He loves to talk about Henry Ford — “a
great administrator,” he says, then about flying machines which
he pilots in preparation for war which he hates. He talks only
to my daughter, now and then, about the Hohenzollern tragedy.
He has a faint hope of becoming Kaiser some time. If he
were sure that would not happen, he would go to the United
States to live. I tell him he ought to study German history and
write the story of the family just as it happened. He was too
young in 1914 to know much, but he has seen enough since
1914 never to forget the points in the tragedy.

April 27. Saturday. We were with Sir Eric and Lady Phipps
for lunch today, forty people present. Goering’s assistant. Air
General Milch, was present, his wife sitting on my right at the
table. Nothing worth while was said, however, except Sir Eric’s
report to my wife that Germany is building twelve submarines
and several large war vessels in violation of the Treaty of Ver-
sailles. He had seen Von Bulow the day before, but no agree-
ment had been made to negotiate. Why plan this great navy
when Germany has no long stretch of coast? Only for a thrust
at England.

April 2g, Monday. At ii o’clock this morning Von Wiegand
stopped by. His information confirmed our reports of war air-
craft work and of German navy building. He reported that
General von Reichenau had just told him that the Reichswehr
was very much disturbed over Hitler’s challenge to all Ger-

248 DECEMBER 23 , I934 TO MAY 21 , I935

many’s neighbours and that they demanded a treaty with Russia
now that the French were weakening a little towards the Soviet
Union. It’s the one opportunity to break the encirclement which
France, England and Italy are making. Hitler is much troubled
and dreads terribly to approach Russia, his one enemy never to
be dealt with. However, Von Reichenau said he had replied to
one of the Reichswehr spokesmen: ‘‘Well, I will make a treaty
with the devil for Germany’s sake.”

May /. Wednesday. The annual Labour Day in Germany has
been converted under the present regime to a National Socialist
demonstration, not unlike July 4 at home, the difference being
that all workers must attend meetings in honour of Hitler
whether they wish or not. We were to have gone to the Tem-
pelhof airfield to witness the demonstration, but snow and rain
alternated and I called up the Foreign Office to be excused. It
was readily granted. Reports estimated the crowd at 1,700,000.
I doubt the figures but it was an immense show and Hitler
made a rather pessimistic speech. He warned the public they
might look for hard times, but all must hang together. He said
he would rather be a German peasant without a home than a
citizen of any other country. He is an Austrian and is reported
to be a millionaire.

The great day passed without other events than the speeches
here of Hitler and Goebbels, the latter having compared his
chief to Joan of Arc as the one person who converses with God
Almighty about his country’s affairs.

May 2. Thursday. Mr. Dunn, chief of our State Depart-
ment’s Division of Western European Affairs, amused me a
little today by his interpretations of events and attitudes. He is
travelling about and making contacts as best he can, not knowing
any language but his own.

May 6 . Monday. Oechsner of the United Press reported
from a secret but absolutely reliable source great activity in sub-
marine and other war vessel building at Wilhelmshaven. He
described also some light ships which carry a few bombs and
go 60 knots an hour. These increasing German naval activities

DECEMBER 2^3, I934 TO MAY 21, I935 249

have changed the friendly British attitude of the last three
months to serious concern, revealed by debates in the House
of Commons as well as by Sir Eric Phipps. Last Sunday, May 5,
I met Sir Eric walking in the Tiergarten and he indicated
his growing anxiety, since Germany has no exposed sea front
of any extent and no colonies. Yet she violates the Versailles
Treaty (of course unfair at many points, like all treaties which
end wars) in this respect too, risking England’s hostility. It
seems to me most unwise at the very moment Italy, France,
England and Russia are working out their encirclement alliance.
England has been hesitant about the Russian phase of this, but
German behaviour at this moment is apt to swing England into
co-operation.

Lord Lothian, who as Philip Kerr was secretary to Lloyd
George during the World War, wrote me about this in a letter
which I received today. He expressed the opinion that the
opportunity to bring Germany into the League of Nations had
been missed because of the failure of France to face reality and
Great Britain’s failure to alter her course. Consequently he be-
lieved the League would be reduced to merely an anti-Nazi
combination giving Germany additional reason to follow its
own path of power politics. He indicated clearly that he favours
a coalition of the democracies to block any German move in
their direction and to turn Germany’s course eastwards. That
this might lead to a war between Russia and Germany does not
seem to disturb him seriously. In fact he seems to feel this
would be a good solution of the difficulties imposed on Germany
by the Versailles Treaty. The problem of the democracies, as
he sees it, is to find for Japan and Germany a stronger place
in world affairs to which, in his opinion, they are entitled be-
cause of their power and tradition. He hopes this can be accom-
plished without any sacrifice to the British Empire and with
as little destruction to human liberty as possible.

May 7. Tuesday. Rabbi Lazaron, returning from a trip to
Geneva and Rome, reported that a member of the Pope’s
cabinet had said to him that the Catholics could not co-operate
with the Lutherans in Germany, although their situation was
identical. The 400-year-old hatred of Martin Luther and his

250 DECEMBER 2$, 1934 TO MAY 21, 1935

work is still responsible for Catholic hostility. But Lazaron
was more troubled about the terrible Jewish plight here. He
had seen Max Warburg of Hamburg and he was very dis-
turbed too. Neither of them could see what is to be done.

May 10. Friday. The new Minister from Bulgaria called in
all good form at the conventional hour. He surprised me with
his liberality and knowledge of affairs in Europe. His explana-
tion of the situation in his country showed a breadth of view
and appreciation of the international situation which surpassed
the knowledge of American ambassadors I have met : Bullitt
in Russia, Cudahy in Poland and Long in Italy. I do not know
Bingham in London and Straus in Paris well enough to com-
pare them. But I am convinced that the ministers here from
Bulgaria, Rumania, Czechoslovakia and Jugoslavia are each
superior to the American ambassadors indicated above.

All these ministers from backward little countries know three
languages and the history of Europe over long stretches of
time. American ambassadors and ministers and even staff mem-
bers almost ignore the need of two or three languages and make
no effort to understand the history of the people to whom they
are accredited. I am ashamed of my lack of knowledge of
French, though my German serves me fairly well, and my
understanding of history gives me some rating with the Ger-
man Foreign Office people who know many languages but not
much of their own history, due to the partisan teaching in
German universities since Von Treitschke.

May /j. Wednesday. Wishing to get some knowledge from
German officials about the international situation, now that Ger-
many is so completely encircled by so-called pacts, I asked Von
Neurath for an unofficial conversation. I saw him at 12 o’clock.

He said that Hitler would speak before a session of the
Reichstag on May 21. What he would say he could not guess,
though he had sent Hitler a memorandum on what ought to be
said. The date was set for the 21st because of the death of
Pilsudski who was to be buried on May 18. Von Neurath spoke
of the so-called “eastern Locarno pact” without animus, though
Hitler rages when the suggestion of his joining it is raised. The

DECEMBER 23, 1034 TO MAY 21, 1935 25 I

Secretary’^ wished it to be delayed until England, Germany and
France could agree upon an aircraft pact whereby each country
is to limit its building of machines. I did not say that England
and France would probably not agree to this until an eastern
Locarno treaty is agreed to by Germany, France being abso-
lutely sure Germany will not keep any of her promises about
disarmament That point was left open because I am myself
sure Germany intends to annex areas in the north and east
and so will not cease arming soon.

I then asked him about the Italian position and the Danube
Conference proposed at Stresa on May 1 1, and much discussed
since. He was surprised, he said, at Mussolini's lack of wisdom
in sending troops into Abyssinia. The result, if war comes, will
cost Italy a great many soldiers, will not be successful for a
long time, and will probably bring financial bankruptcy to
Italy. He described the Italian situation as very dangerous:
armed to the hilt, in debt to the limit, and without markets.
The position is exactly parallel to that in which Germany will
find herself by 1937. He said: “Mussolini cannot dismiss his
million soldiers without huge unemployment; he cannot go
on arming further without bankruptcy and he cannot fail in
war without being overthrown.” Von Neurath described this
in a way which made me think constantly of Germany’s similar
position even now, though her debts are not yet so critical as
Italy’s and war is not quite so imminent.

While nothing directly significant was said, I came away
convinced that the Foreign Office people are doing their ut-
most to restrain Hitler and coax England into a breach with
France and Italy. There is real uneasiness, especially since the
Polish dictator Pilsudski’s death.

May ly. Friday. Richard J. Davis of Chicago, a Christian
Science lecturer, finishing a month’s lecture tour of Germany,
called to describe the peculiar attitudes of German audiences
in all parts of the country. He thought there was an increasing
interest in religion, contrary to the Rosenberg drift. I am not
sure of his appraisal, but it was surprising that houses where he
lectured were always crowded. He thinks the population very
uneasy. Perhaps at least the church people are.

DECEMBER 23, 1934 TO MAY 21, I935

May 18. Saturday I went to the Catholic Cathedral near the
old Kaiser’s palace to attend the service in honour of Pilsudski,
who was being buried in Cracow, Poland, at the same time
The church was crowded. Hitler took the seat of honour on the
right of the altar. Von Neurath, Goebbels, and generals of the
Reichswehr were seated in the first row behind Hitler, whose
distinguished position in a chair with an altar just in front of
him looked suggestive.

It was amusing to note all the white gloves in the church
on a moderately warm day. It was strictly formal, though
swords in a Christian church seemed to me to be bad taste.
What would Jesus have said if he had seen such evidences of
war spirit? He would probably have left the place.

Promptly at 1 1, the Papal Nuncio came up the aisle with an
escort of twelve priests, a long, red robe suspended from his
shoulders and extending at least twelve feet behind him, two
men holding it up so it would not drag along the floor. He
took his seat on a sort of throne on the right side of the great
altar where candles were burning and priests were chanting in
Latin, which no one understood, and occasionally falling upon
their knees and scattering incense, which I think Jesus never
used. It was the medieval ceremony from beginning to end
and nobody, save perhaps the priests, understood anything that
was said or sung.

To me it was all half-absurd. I do not know much about
Pilsudski, except that he was a dictator who put people to death
when they opposed him. Why so much religious ceremony
when no one could have imagined him to be a Christian? But
there was probably not one follower of Jesus in the whole
congregation. I wondered how German Lutherans and Catho-
lics would honour Hitler, a professed Catholic, if he should die.
He has murdered or caused to be murdered hundreds of inno-
cent people. Yet all of us diplomats would be called into the
churches to pay tribute to him as a Christian in case of his
death.

I came away from the Cathedral at 12.20 rather relieved to
be free from so much hypocrisy. Some people may not feel as
I do. To me the actual teachings of the simple, direct-minded
Jesus were exceedingly important and early Christianity really

DECEMBER 23, I934 MAY 21 , 1935 253

democratic. Now neither the Catholics nor the Protestants be-
lieve in, nor practise, Christian or democratic principles. Since
my college days, when I was president of the Virginia Poly-
technic Institute student Y M.C.A., I have come slowly to
recognize the insincerity of people who call themselves Chris-
tians and I have been compelled out of honesty to cease attend-
ing church services, save on certain official occasions. If men
were Christians there would be no war, also none of the terrible
exploitations which our business men have applied to our
people.

May 21, Tuesday, At eight o’clock I went to the Kroll Opera
House near the old, discredited Reichstag Building to hear
Hitler speak to the world about his situation and his policy as
Fuehrer. I was five minutes early, but all the seats in the diplo-
matic reserved section, except one, were taken: the French,
Italian, British, Japanese, and Polish Ambassadors in the front
row. Madame von Neurath and Madame Cerruti had taken
two front-row seats, so there was none for me. Von Bassewitz
placed a special chair at the end of the row for me, but the chair
was not comfortable-looking, and knowing the speech was to
last two hours I took the one vacant seat in the third row, very
undiplomatic but comfortable.

The Chancellor began promptly. For twenty minutes he
talked about the German economic situation, without real un-
derstanding Then he discussed the German situation at the
close of the World War (assuming that his country was entirely
innocent of any wrongdoing) and the wicked Versailles Treaty.
I noted the self-consciousness of the French Ambassador,
especially as he spoke of the Fourteen Points of 1918-19, The
last hour of the address dealt severe blows to the League of
Nations and Communism. He was not far wrong in this either,
but exaggerated greatly the faults of both. He did not indicate,
as formerly, his willingness to return to the League in case
of the granting of equality, so often discussed since October,
1933 -

What Hitler said about Lithuania and eastern border
troubles revealed more freely than he intended his real purpose
never to surrender his hope of annexations. Many times he

254 DECEMBER 23, I934 TO MAY 21 , I935

has said that colonies would not be worth anything to Germany,
as Dr. Schacht so often insists they would, and that therefore
annexation^ of regions of half-industrialized peoples like Lithu-
anians, western Poles and Esthonians must be made. His
reference to a Lithuanian annexation was veiled but it brought
the wildest hurrahs of the whole evening. Similar references
to Austria brought equal applause.

There was nothing said which directly indicated German
war purposes. The references to a navy equal to 35 per cent
of British strength and the suggestion that England and France
ought to enter into an agreement with Germany to limit air-
craft suggested two approaches to an agreement with England
which I think pleased the British Ambassador. It is quite pos-
sible that Hitler might be compelled to come to some inter-
national agreement, if the other powers are wise enough to
make careful moves. But they will not do this.

Earnest and emphatic as Hitler appeared, he certainly does
not fool me. He once avowed to me that he would throw any
German official into the North Sea if he sent propaganda to
the United States, and when I arrived in New York during the
last days of March 1934, his Consul-General brought me a
cabled order to German officials in America to the same effect.
I gave the order to the State Department. But there are now
600 employees in the foreign propaganda division now active
in Berlin. Nor was there any let-up in the United States in
1934, although perhaps the Consuls for a time suspended open
activity. This is one of many evidences of the complete insin-
cerity of their promises Much as I dislike the thought, I
believe all the powers of Europe must unite and keep united
and armed to the limit, unless they soon give the Chancellor
an ultimatum compelling him to cease arming beyond a certain
point, and his response to that might mean the outbreak of war.

VII

May 22y igjj to November 2g^ iggg

May 22 , Wednesday, I had an interesting talk at noon today
with Armand Berard. He frankly said : ‘Trance is perturbed,
especially at England’s acceptance of Hitler’s promises as sin-
cere. We cannot believe he is pacific, but the French people
will not go to war. We made a pact with Italy last year, much
as we disliked Mussolini, simply to stop German aggression
and we had to promise him the annexation of Abyssinia. I
hope Mussolini has sense enough to annex a little of the country
at a time, as we did in Morocco. We have urged that upon
the Italians. They may not observe this and precipitate
trouble.” This is the European way. I was a little surprised at
his frankness.

He then said : “Laval, our Foreign Minister, wishes to come
here and talk with Hitler. My Ambassador is leaving for Paris
tonight in order to stop this if possible. We do not think any
agreement with Germany can be made.” I think some agree-
ment could be made if France agreed that Austria might be
annexed, and that would mean later attempts to annex Czecho-
slovakia and Hungary. Of course the French do not like to
think of a Third Reich of eighty million people.

Monsieur Berard then said that France is soon to reduce the
value of the franc in order to check gold shipments to New
York — over a million dollars this week, a carload on the Wash-^
ington today! But this devaluation will not change British or
American devaluation attitudes. Washington wished to stabilize
when I was there. Now there seems to be no wish to do it.

At 4.15 I talked with Sir Eric Phipps who seemed quite a
bit pleased at the reactions of the London press to what we
heard Hitler say last night. I was not surprised. The British
seem to have fallen for the Fuehrer’s proposals. If they keep
on like this, six months from now there will be no real dis-
armament agreement, and Germany will be far more com-
pletely prepared for another 1914 stroke than now.

We talked a little about the possibility of influencing the

256 MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, I935

Germans to stop their ruthless and cruel treatment of the Jews.
Poor Rabbi Lazaron of Baltimore has been here three monthsj
coming to my office far too often, and hoping always to get a
hearing with Hess or Goering. Not a chance in the world ! I
have warned him that he had perhaps better leave the country,
as something might happen. Sir Eric said he would see Lazaron
because he represents the leading Jews of England and the
United States.

‘^But it can do no good,’’ he said. ‘'^Hitler is fanatical on the
subject and if you and I were to go to the Foreign Office to
argue the matter there would be a sensation and perhaps a
dozen Jews would be beaten, even killed, within a few days.”
I am not quite so pessimistic as that, but such a move would
do no good at all The Hitler Party is bent upon putting all
the Jews out of Germany and confiscating their property.

May 55, Saturday. Louis Lochner sent me information from
someone in the Foreign Office with whom he talks intimately
that the German Government has a military alliance with
Japan and that seventy army officers are coming here to co-
ordinate their activities with German Army officials. Ilgner of
I. G. Farben, the Chemical Trust, who has been in the Far
East for a year, is said to have negotiated part of the pact and
to have sold Japan vast supplies of war chemicals and gases. I
have believed there was a secret pact of this kind for several
months. While this story may not be true I am enough im-
pressed to have telegraphed the State Department.

Rabbi Lazaron came in unwisely again, calling first on the
telephone. He was aware, though, of his danger and is getting
away in a day or two. It would not surprise me if he should
be arrested in Cologne or Frankfurt where Jews are being
watched more closely than here. He reported that a good
friend came to him this morning, very uneasy lest he be killed.
I expect Jews to be put into prison and maltreated if not killed.
Thousands are reported to be in concentration camps now,
especially Jews who have returned. Lazaron goes to London
in a week or two in the hope of influencing the British Govern-
ment to ask the Germans to cease or limit their drastic be-
haviour. I do not think any results can be obtained.

MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, 1935 257

May 26. Sunday. I met Sir Eric Phipps for a walk in the
Tiergarten. I gave him the confidential information about the
Japanese. He was not as much impressed as I had expected.
He said : “We have three army officers here studying German
methods. That’s not seventy, of course. It might be a serious
thing for Japan to make such a pact, but I would not be sur-
prised.” After a good deal of talk about consequences in the
Far East, he promised to inquire in London whether they
knew of such a military alliance.

On the general subject of Germany’s policy he was still
optimistic and seemed to expect an air Locarno involving limi-
tations and international inspection. I indicated my doubts, but
said that if Germany makes a real concession and permits an
international commission to pass upon such things it may mean
real progress. I added . Have you heard that Germany is to help
Poland get Lithuania, and Poland is to cut off the Baltic end
of the Corridor so that East Prussia can be definitely connected
through Danzig with Germany? He said: “No, but I would
not be surprised, since Lithuania has been so foolish the last
year.” I agreed entirely as to her folly, but the German propa-
ganda in Memel had a lot to do with the trouble.

Of course Germany’s position in the Danzig zone is very
difficult. But Poland for 150 years before 1914 was shamefully
treated and exploited by Prussia, and by Russia too. Poland has
some nght to a bit of sea coast, especially when her population
extends to the sea.

Sir Eric indicated that the English are more optimistic of
German co-operation than I am. Perhaps the domestic situation
in his country is responsible. The evidence that comes to me
every day seems to show no change whatsoever in Germany’s
aggressive conduct.

May 27. Monday. I was a half hour with Dr. Schacht today
to learn what he thinks about the existing economic dilemma
in Germany. He was so enthusiastic about the effects of Hitler’s
May 21 speech that I learned nothing. Instead of expecting
collapse next October he now says : “We shall go on successfully
until next January, perhaps until the United States and
England stabilize their currencies.”

1

258 MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, I935

May 2g. Wednesday. We had to go to the home of the
Japanese Ambassador to dinner last night. A large company
was there, including the Russian Ambassador, Dr. Schacht, and
Von Ribbentrop, who expected to be put into Von Bulow’s
place, with Von Neurath going to London. Von Ribbentrop
acknowledged that he goes to London on June 4 to negotiate
a naval agreement, by which Germany is to have 35 per cent
of England’s strength. There was, of course, no worth-while
conversation, but we were shown an hour’s film about Japan
which kept us rather late for me. We were the first to leave
The Japanese will return to Tokyo in a few days to remain
five months, they said.

The Russian Ambassador said to me while we were a mo-
ment alone together : ‘^Yes, I think there is a German-Japanese
treaty, but I have no proof.”

June 2. Sunday. We had a rather sad luncheon today. A
young prince belonging to one of Germany’s royal families
spoke with deep feeling against the murders that were com-
mitted here last year. He said the Reichswehr officers are all
against the present regime, but dare not open their mouths. I
have other evidence in the same direction, but nobody ever
says anything openly. The Prince spoke of the ruthless treat-
ment of Professors Oncken and Hoetzsch, dismissed because
they insisted on their right to express their opinions in their
special fields. He said, ^'Our Kaiser never permitted such a
thing to be done.”

I recall a certain lack of freedom, when I was in Leipzig
as a student, on the subject of the Kaiser. Otherwise there was
considerable freedom in historical and philosophic fields. I re-
member that Mommsen once attacked Bismarck violently in
the Reichstag and nothing was done to him. Such an attack
now would cause one’s death, or long-term imprisonment.
When the Prince went away all of us felt depressed for him.
A liberal who would like to play some role in the affairs of his
country, he can only serve as an officer in the army and he
hates the idea of war.

June 8 . Saturday. Lochner showed me a copy of secret in-

MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, 1935 259

structions sent to the German press about the necessity of con-
ciliating the Jews who supposedly have the world film business
in their control. Goebbels had dictated this explanation to the
press because recent instructions against Jews had been so dras-
tic. Lochner said he could not send the report over the A.P.
wires because it was so confidential.

June 13. Thursday. McMaster, the Quaker leader here since
the World War, came in today to tell me about an eminent
man in prison, Carl von Ossietzky, whom Jane Addams before
her death recommended for the Nobel peace prize. He was
editor of a German paper of liberal type, not unlike the New
Republic, before Hitler came to power. It was at once con-
fiscated and forbidden to appear and he was imprisoned early
in 1 933. He has been in prison ever since and frequently beaten,
so McMaster reports. But he has been spared during the last
few months. McMaster thinks him a very fine man, though
perhaps his work was not important enough to justify the Nobel
prize. Strange as it might appear, I believe Miss Addams’ ad-
vice mig ht wisely be accepted. It would emphasize peace so
strikingly that all the world would discuss it for a month.

Another prisoner of the same character, about whom Pro-
fessor Charles A. Beard has written me twice, is also still in
prison but likely to be released. However, McMaster says he
will not be permitted to leave the country — “he knows too
much.”

This McMaster is a unique man. He knows practically every
high official here, he distributed millions of American dollars
in food for the hungry in 1919-21, and has seen so much of
the good and the bad of German behaviour that he cannot be
denied a hearing. Yet he said to me the last time he called :
“Do not call me on the telephone or write letters under Em-
bassy heading.” So when I wish to consult him, I send a
messenger with a note.

He is one of the most humane and useful men in Berlin.
Von Hindenburg was a friend of his; Von Hindenburg’s
secretary, Meissner, is always glad to see him and report his
requests to Hitler. But McMaster never reports anything as
coming from me. Although the economic status here is very

26 o may 22, 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, I935

dangerous, McMaster says the regime will last a long time,
unless the death of Hitler should occur. That is exactly my
view, and if Hitler continues five years more in power, there is
apt to be war. The German population is being trained to the
limit for war, its national debt is piling up every day, like that
of Italy, and both the Polish Corridor and Austria are expecting
aggression.

June 14, Friday, Having been asked several times to speak
before the Carl Schurz Verein, I accepted for this evening and
went to Schadowstrasse No. 7 in the older part of the city. The
hall was packed. I spoke on the Lincoln crisis in 1861 showing
just how the Civil War began. My conclusion was that war
rarely solves any problem. The enthusiasm of the Germans,
including officials, was such that I concluded they are afraid
of the Hitler war programme. Since the American press asked
especially for a copy, I am a little afraid my statements may be
so printed over there as to arouse criticism. I shall wait and see.

June 15, Saturday, We had a score of guests at tea today,
the most interesting being Sir Eric Phipps, who pulled me aside
and said : “'Our situation is very difficult, if not dangerous. The
Germans insist upon their 35 per cent new navy and they are
otherwise belligerent. Two months ago I talked with Hitler.
He then demanded the same size navy as ours. I said you do
not need so many ships since your coastline is so limited. He
said : ‘Yes, but we must have warships all over the Baltic Sea.’
Later I argued with him and he was uncompromising, even
impolite in his manner.”

We talked a little about British-American relations in the
Far East, both agreeing that co-operation of the two countries
was about the only means of preventing a world war within a
few years. “But public opinion in both our countries is opposed
to any common action,” he said. It was a sad conversation, the
British Ambassador revealing more concern than I have before
noted this year.

I told him I owed a letter to Lord Lothian, former secretary
to David Lloyd George. He said, “Won’t you write him
frankly about the real situation here? It would do more good

MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, I935 261

than one of my letters.” I promised to do so. “Lothian,” he
said, “is a close friend of Lord Astor and the Observer people.
They need some more accurate information.”

June 21. Friday. I read a lecture tonight on the American
Revolution before Professor Windelband’s seminsir. There was
a large crowd. I spoke German and the students seemed to
understand all that was said. There were five or six professors
present, but no Hitler greetings were exchanged. My old pro-
fessor, Erich Marcks, was present and asked some interesting
questions when I finished. The discussion of certain phases of
the Revolution continued almost an hour.

I omitted to note the fact that we had a luncheon today in
honour of Charles R. Crane. Dr. Schacht was one of the guests
and he took considerable interest in Mr. Crane particularly, I
noticed, after I told him of Crane’s business connections. Mr.
Stewart of the State Department was also with us. His hope
was to find some way to sell Germany some hundred thousand
bales of cotton. Schacht gave him an appointment for an hour
late in the afternoon. Schacht is even more anxious to buy
than Stewart is to sell, but how to pay?

No man in Germany, perhaps none in Europe, is quite so
clever as this “economic dictator.” His position is always deli-
cate and even dangerous. When I saw him early in July, 1934,
his first remark was; “Ich lebe noch” (I am still living), which
I felt was rather dangerous. His ivife says they “are on a train
going at full speed near the end of the road.”

June 25. Tuesday. A foreign correspondent told me today his
conviction that both England and France are absolutely op-
posed to any move that may lead to war, even if Germany
were to annex Lithuania, and that Hitler is bent on dominating
the Baltic Sea, annexing what he wishes on the east side of
that sea in order to block Russian expansion. He said he had
seen a letter received by Lord Rothermere a month ago from
Hearst in which the latter had urged a German-English-
American alliance. This would permit the domination of the
world by these nations. Lord Rothermere was reported not
too hopeful of the scheme.

262 MA^ 22, i935 TO NOVEMBER 25 , 1935

He then said he had heard in Paris that Germany and Japan
have a secret entente, to be used any time Germany chooses to
move m the Baltic area. If Russia protests, or becomes in-
volved in war with Germany, Japan will attack her eastern
frontier. Finally, he attached great importance to a conference
about to take placedn Paris between Laval, Litvinov, Titulescu
of Rumania and Benes of Czechoslovakia. It is to conclude a
pact between France, Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Russia
to block Hitler’s plans in the Baltic area.

It is not a little curious, but no German official has ever
intimated to me a German desire for an understanding with
the United States.

Douglas Miller, our Commercial Attache, asked today to
send a long telegram under my name. It explained a meeting
he had had the day before with leading German industrialists
who think they can pay for 600,000 bales of cotton in goods
which American firms wish to import, Montgomery Ward and
Company of Chicago being one of the main importers. This is
in disregard of the boycott by the Jews and the labour people.
I sent the telegram, giving the facts but making no recom-
mendation, since that would involve the State Department in
some responsibility for the credit New York banks are propos-
ing to give. Having failed always to get any real consideration
when I have asked for payment of the two billions on which
the Germans pay no interest, I could hardly say anything now
even though payment seemed rather promising. $30,000,000
would be something of an item.

The last thing on this busy day was a visit to the Minister
from Holland. He is convinced, as I am, that there is an
entente between Germany and Japan, but he has no proof. Of
England’s position he was as sceptical as I am. Both of us are
of the opinion that England and the United States might stop
Japan’s annexation of China if they co-operated. Curiously
enough the English-speaking peoples do not like each other
though neither ever thinks of direct hostility towards the other.
He thought the British-German naval pact of a week or two
ago a dangerous thing though he approved of the Russians
being held firmly in their isolated position. Germany will con-
trol the Baltic absolutely, Turkey will never allow Russia

MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, 1935 263

access to the Mediterranean, and Japan watches Russia’s little
front on the Pacific like a hawk.

Before leaving I suggested that he ask his government to
make approaches to universities in the United States for ex-
change professorships I told him I would suggest the same to
Chicago where such lectureships are always welcome. He
agreed at once, saying that if our peoples could know each
other better and the English could also co-operate, we might
do something for peace. I suppose all such moves are useless,
yet one dislikes to do nothing in a world in such a dangerous
position

July Thursday. At 5 o’clock hundreds of Americans living
in Berlin and Americans visiting Germany came to our annual
reception, some of them very interesting people. I made a
short speech at 6.15 on The American Idealists of 1776. This
address had been written for delivery at a dinner tonight of
the American colony, but the dinner was called off, and since
American press people had wired copies to the United States,
I felt I had to deliver it sometime today. The guests stood
fifteen minutes while I delivered it and some wealthy Ameri-
cans declared they agreed with my comments on the great
leaders of American history who have represented the principles
of 1776: Lincoln, Wilson and F D. Roosevelt.

July 6. Saturday. At noon I saw Secretary von Neurath for
half an hour, the State Department having requested informa-
tion by wire on reports which I had sent in the last pouch.
Von Neurath talked freely about the British-German agree-
ment on naval armament.

‘‘Germany is proud of the good understanding and hopes
France will co-operate,” he said, “but I do not think we could
enter the League of Nations even if England and France
agreed to an anti-Italian war policy. We would, however, give
moral support because we think Mussolini’s war plan very
foolish. Yet he must go to war since he can do nothing new
at home. If he does not fight he is in danger. If he does go
to war against Abyssinia, he can hardly win anything worth
while and may even be defeated, which would mean his over-

264 MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, I935

throw, I know him well and am sure he will not change his
attitude, no matter how much England, France and even the
United States may protest.”

When we talked of the recent German-Polish conference
here, he said, ‘‘We are on the best of terms. Our object was
to defeat the French-Russian pact and prevent the Danube
agreement proposed at Stresa. There were no Hungarian alli-
ance or agreements discussed.” This he said in spite of the fact
that the chief of staff of the Hungarian Army was here under
cover, “Nor was there any agreement with Poland about our
control of the Baltic Sea. We must control that area to keep
Russia off the ocean.” That is the historic German policy,
though Kaiser Wilhelm II allowed the Russian fleet to sail
around France, Spain and Italy on its way to fight Japan in

1905-

When the Secretary referred again to a British-German
entente and I asked about the coming naval conference, he
expressed much hope that all nations would meet together and
agree on naval reductions, “but we cannot join the conference
if Japan refuses to attend.” This surprised me a little because
I had not expected such an open hint of a German-Japanese
entente. He stated this with a positiveness that confirmed my
belief that there was an alliance.

Japan must dominate the Far East and capture Vladivostok.
Germany must dominate Europe, but first the Baltic, and if
Russia resists, Japan will attack the Russian eastern border.
This is certain to happen if the League of Nations fails. Then
France and Italy will become minor powers and the Balkan
zone will become subordinate to Germany, with Russia
hemmed into her old historic position. Finally the United
States will have to bring both Americas into co-operation or
be subordinated,

July 8, Monday. The Germans celebrate Sabbath days with
soldiers drilling and marching. Yet Hitler always declares he
will never allow war. Perhaps some of these poor fellows dread
the dangers of a European conflict, but most of them think
warfare something that ennobles the German character. It is
the one way in their minds to serve one’s country.

MAY 22, 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, I935 265

July II. Thursday. I did not want high officials here to know
I wished to see Von Ribbentrop, the personal negotiator of
Hitler, about naval and other agreements with England. I
had heard that the Foreign Office had shipped Baron Lersner,
a former Army official, to London to spy on Von Ribbentrop
while he was there negotiating the naval pact. Lersner is a
very shrewd man and one could hardly tell that he is a Ger-
man, he speaks Enghsh so fluently. For these reasons I asked
the Carl Schurz Verein secretary to invite Von Ribbentrop to
meet me there today at 12 o’clock.

We talked half an hour. His answers to questions paralleled
everything Von Neurath said except on the subject of Japan.
Three times I managed to ask him about Germany’s position in
case Japan refused to take part in next year’s naval discussions,
on expiration of the Washington Treaty. He evaded answering
, every time. He did this in a way which made me think there
' is a German-Japanese treaty. He expressed the hope twice that
I would press upon Washington to urge France to co-operate
with England and Germany in navy matters. I mentioned the
matter in a telegram, but did not give personal advice. There
was little else discussed.

It is commonly said here that Hitler will soon assume the
Foreign Secretary’s functions, as Mussolini has done, and that
Von Ribbentrop will then become the real and active Secretary
for Foreign Affairs. In that case, I should be still further em-
barrassed. It would be most disagreeable to see Hitler himself
when important messages from Washington were sent. I could
not stand it long.

July 12. Friday. At 12.30 I sat down for a half hour with
the French Ambassador to ask about some problems I
had discussed with Von Ribbentrop He said he thinks there
is an understanding with Japan whereby the Germans will
lend indirect aid in case of any war. He said ; “I think
this, but have no proof. As to naval co-operation, France
cannot think of it. We must build new warships to keep
pace with the new German navy. As to Mussolini, I do
not think he will go to war with Abyssinia.” The Ambas-
sador’s reason was clear : Mussolini could not afford to take

12

266 MAY 22, 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, 1935

the risk of a great setback, for then Germany might easily seize
Austria.

July 14. Sunday, We had a most interesting luncheon party,
Paul Scheffer of the Berliner Tageblatt and Louis Lochner of
the Associated Press were the most interesting guests Scheffer,
who edits the once famous liberal paper read all over Germany,
is well informed. He was once well known in the United States
and he travelled with Roosevelt on his famous campaign of
1932, but he had to come home after Hitler suppressed so
many newspapers and denied liberty to those which survived.

Scheffer said: “The readers of newspapers in all Germany
have declined in number by more than six millions since 1933 ”
His paper has about a tenth of the subscribers it once had, and
he barely earns his living His wife and children are living in
Washington and supporting themselves, no one being per-
mitted to send money out of this country.

He said he had heard the day before that at the last Cabinet
meeting the economic situation of Germany was solemnly dis-
cussed. The demand of Goebbels was that Dr. Darre, the Agri-
cultural Minister who is an extremist, be made economic dic-
tator in place of Dr. Schacht. Von Schwerm-Krosigk, Finance
Minister, and Von Neurath opposed Goebbels Schacht said : “I
cannot be sure we shall succeed, but I cannot change my policy.

I shall stand my ground even if put to death.” When Schacht
sat down. Hitler rose and said: “Often as we disagree, Dr.
Schacht, I shall not permit any such thing to happen to
you.” Goebbels, who hates Schacht to the rath degree, was
defeated.

July ly, Wednesday, We sat down to dinner tonight with
the French Ambassador, twenty miles out of town on Lake
Wannsee. It was a beautiful evening. The leading guests were
the Papal Nuncio in his blood-red frock, the Italian Ambassa-
dor who is about to leave for Paris, the Belgian, the Austrian
and the Swiss Ministers But the tone was rather solemn. The
Nuncio talked about the increasing violence against the Catho-
lics all over Germany, He expected trouble. The Pope had
just published a denunciation of the German violations of the

MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, 1035 267

Concordat of 1933 guaranteeing Catholic freedom. The Aus-
trian said that the drift in his country was towards restoration
of the Hapsburgs, but that this would cause danger, if not inter-
vention, from Hitler. The Italian assured the French that
''nothing would halt Mussolini.” This reversed a French state-
ment to me a few days ago. We came home about 12 o’clock
none too happy. It was an interesting evening, though diplo-
matic food does not agree with me.

July 18. Thursday. I called on Secretary von Bulow to get
the German view on the Italian-Abyssinian conflict and to
learn what the German authorities would do if Washington
pressed for enforcement of the famous Briand-Kellogg pact
against war. The Secretary was quite positive that Mussolini
would go on, that Germany would hold aloof, and that pres-
sure for the Briand-Kellogg pact would do harm. It was clear
to me that Germany hopes the Italians will go to war and lose.
That will give Germany her chance in the Balkans. It was
plain that Von Bulow would be embarrassed if the United
States pressed its peace ideas.

In the afternoon the Berlin Am Mittag carried glaring red
ink headlines calling attention to Goering’s declaration of war
upon the Catholics Henceforth they are to have no freedom
of speech, no right to have youth organizations, and no right
to criticize anything.

July 21. Sunday, We drove out to Neudeck and I sent my
card into the palace of the deceased President. After a few
minutes, Paul von Hindenburg and his wife met us a little
way from the house and we walked about the old estate for an
hour. There were 12,000 acres of very good land, a great
barn for 150 horses, cows enough to produce a hundred gal-
lons of milk a day, 500 sheep and wide fields of wheat, rye
and barley. It is a great estate which Von Hindenburg’s an-
cestors had owned for 200 years. The Hitler Party had bought
the greater part of the land now included and given it to the
President in the hope of gaining his support This is the com-
mon story. Anyway Von Hindenburg sanctioned autocracy in
January, 1933, and never protested publicly when Hitler’s

268 MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, I935

aide, Goering, set fire to the famous Reichstag building, about
the time the Fuehrer took office as Chancellor.

Knowledge of these circumstances embarrassed me a little,
but the son was most agreeable and showed us the marvellous
house and its interesting paintings and sculpture, all rather
war-like. They then begged us to remain for dinner, but we
declined. There was not a picture or bust or flag of Hitler in
or about the place. The Kaiser’s likeness was most conspicuous
in the Hindenburgs’ library. Frederick IPs picture was equally
attractive. A painting of Ludendorff was also there, though
the two generals are said to have been bitter enemies all their
later years.

July 22, Monday, A long, fast drive to Berlin. The trip
showed how prosperous the whole region north of Berhn
seemed to be. I have never seen such wonderful grain crops.
Even the Polish crops are extraordinary. I cannot help think-
ing Germany will have plenty to eat next year and a reasonable
surplus for war emergency. But the journey did not cure my
digestive ailment. Stopping at the office, I found many letters
and documents awaiting my attention.

July 23, Tuesday Too unwell for office work, I remained in
bed until late in the afternoon when Henry Haskell, editor of
the Kansas City Star^ came to tea. I listened to him describe
the attitudes of leading American papers of the Middle West.
He predicted Roosevelt’s re-election, but he is doubtful of
the constructive work necessary for a real recovery from our
economic troubles. The party situations are that the Republi-
cans are divided hopelessly and without a single leader of any
real promise while the Democrats are only a little more united,
Roosevelt being the only man who can hold liberal groups
together and thwart the extremists of left and right.

What he said about Farley was most deprecating, but he
added, ‘‘We cannot in years to come get on without chiefs tied
in with city politicians, almost American Fascists.” From the
one independent, liberal paper in the West this is a sad com-
ment. One paper in St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch, is perhaps of

MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, I935 269

the same temper. The politics of the United States is certainly
none too appealing.

July 24, Wednesday, When I entered the office, I was in-
formed that officials of the Von Steuben Society of New York,
ally of the Carl Schurz Foundation here, and financed by the
Oberlaender Trust Fund of Philadelphia, had bo affronted
members of our staff, our consulate members, and our press
people at the Bierabend given last evening that no one would
attend the dinner this evening at the Kroll restaurant. Mr.
White asked to be excused from going to Magdeburg tomorrow
where he was expected to speak in honour of Von Steuben. Our
Military Attache, Captain Crockett, called me on the phone
and asked to be excused. He could not attend a meeting of
American travellers here who insulted American citizens and
officers.

The question I had to answer was: Shall I keep my fort-
night-old promise to be at the dinner and speak briefly tonight?
Since all other members of our official group had given notice
they would not attend the dinner, it seemed to me that if I
declined at the last minute, though I was really half-sick, it
might appear as a diplomatic affront and perhaps receive pub-
licity of an unfavourable nature. I decided to go, especially as
Ambassador Luther was to be present. But I determined to
make a careful, brief speech advising them not to indulge in
offensive propaganda and to remember who Carl Schurz was.

Ambassador Luther came to see me in the morning. We
talked half an hour and said nothing. I could not say anything
about conditions in Germany without being critical. He could
hardly say anything about things in Washington without being
critical. He did talk somewhat freely because Americans do not
resent' rational criticism. Acknowledging that neither of us had
really done anything, he said farewell. He is sailing for New
York on August i. He is a conservative and quite agreeable,
I intimated that both of us ought to resign.

My wife and I went to the dinner. There was a company of
about a hundred Germans and Americans. I sat down by the
side of Mr. Hoffman, the chief of the Von Steuben crowd, the
man who had spoken so offensively last evening. At the appro-

270 MAY 22, 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, 1935

priate time, Hanfstaengl spoke for the German official element,
repeating what he had said two weeks before when the Inter-
national Chamber of Commerce people gave a dinner at the
Adlon Hotel I then spoke briefly and urged the German
society to cultivate friendly relations between the two countries
by exchanging lectures of distinguished scholars and scientists,
by stressing cultural relations and university connections and,
above all, by opposing war moves or attitudes. I even stressed
free press relations and the value of publishing the truth so
that people could know what was actually going on all over
the world. There was some hearty applause as I closed, and
some significant silence

Hoffman followed with an offensive description of what he
said had been the American attitude towards Germany. Al-
though he did not again attack the American press, he did
attack the Wilson plan at the end of the World War and he
treated the American boycott as though it had no provocation
from the German side. I was insulted but I did not get up,
nor did I say anything that could cause hot discussion. Hanf-
staengl criticized Hoffman in private conversation. It was the
most disagreeable meeting I have attended since I came here

m 1933-

July 25, Thursday, Minister Gie of South Africa came to
ask me whether evidences of unrest in Germany indicated an-
other ‘‘shoot-up” like that of June 30, 1934. We discussed the
idea for some time and concluded that it all depended on
whether Hitler yielded to the demand of Goering, Goebbels
and Darre to dismiss Dr. Schacht. As yet I have no evidence
that Schacht is to be dismissed, but if I were Schacht and
had any money in the bank at Basle, where he is a director, I
would leave Germany and stay away as long as the Nazi regime
lasts.

July 26, Friday, At ii o’clock, I held a conference with
members of the Embassy staff, Mr. White, Mr. Lee, Mr.
Flack and Mr. Beam, all close students of events here, also
Miller, our Commercial Attache, Steere, our Agricultural
Attach^ and Captain Crockett as well as the Naval Attache.
We made an interesting survey which revealed ample evidence

MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, 1935 271

of sharp differences of opinion in the German Cabinet. Darre
wishes to control economic policy and confiscate the wealth of
all Jews, great industrialists and great landlords in order to
place the unemployed on farms and train the army for service
at any moment Miller said Schacht is dead against confiscation
and that Hitler supports him.

Captain Crockett, after travelling all about Germany, says
the country is covered with barracks, training grounds and air-
fields, and that munition plants are now scattered all over the
country, especially in residential sections of big cities. He added
that army officials had reported 2,000,000 volunteer soldiers
now awaiting their turn on the drill-grounds, that the plan is
for 8,000,000 to be ready for service within three or four years.
To my surprise, army officers of high rank are supporting con-
fiscation of wealth to be used for army equipment, drills, and
uniforms. This is contrary to former army attitudes. It may
mean that Hitler will yield to Darre who is supported by Goer-
ing and Goebbels. That would put Schacht out of office. With
him would go Von Neurath, Von Schwerin-Krosigk and others
of the moderate wing. The effect? No one can tell.

This was also a day for letters from home. Colonel House
wrote from his summer residence in Manchester, Mass., that
he hoped I would resign in October and return home where
I might render better service than here. I am inclined to
retire but do not wish to do so until next spring There is
nothing one can do here, much as one may try. I replied to
Colonel House indicating how difficult it would be for me to
do anything there: I am not fitted for expert work in the
government and any speeches I might make would probably
be embarrassing, as was revealed last winter when I spoke in
Baltimore.

Augusts. Friday. Yesterday there was a riotous attack in New
York on the German ship, the Bremen^ its flag being thrown
into the Hudson River. Senator King recently offered a reso-
lution in Washington asking our government to sever diplo-
matic relations. And President Green of the American Federa-
tion of Labour called on all Americans to cease commercial
relations with Germany. If this is not enough to make our

272 MAY 22 , I935 TO NOVEMBER 25, I935

relations with Germany critical, I do not know what could
make them critical.

August 3. Saturday. A correspondent came to me this morn-
ing and reported that an official of the Reichswehr met him
by appointment last night and said: “Conditions are worse
than you have reported and the propaganda people know it.
Between 50 and 150 Stahlhelm people have been killed in
Saxony in the last few days as they resisted arrest. How many
S.S. men who tried to arrest them were killed I do not know.’’
This information came from Von Reichenau’s office, a general
soon to be sent to one of the provinces to command a division
of the new army. I am not sure of course whether this story was
told to get the correspondent to make a “blunder” or whether
it is genuine. We shall not mention it in our telegram of today.

We sent a telegram about the dismissal of Italian and Swiss
press correspondents this week and the threats to two Dutch
news men. Their lives are not safe here, according to the
Dutch Legation.

August 6. Tuesday. Martha and I arrived today at Budingen
Sanitarium, in Constance, for the purpose of a real vacation.

August 26. Monday. After three weeks in Constance, I set
out for Berlin this morning. The ship took me to Friedrich-
shafen in two hours. Another hour and I was at Ulm, but had
no time to stop and look over the famous medieval city. I
reached Augsburg in time for lunch. Then I wandered about
the marvellous old city. The most striking thing I saw was the
Jacob Fugger bank and business house. The whole building
covers at least two acres of ground, more than eighty yards
fronting on the leading street of the town. It was all so inter-
esting that I bought a biography of the first Morgan of modem
Europe. Looking into five or six bookstores, I saw only two
Nazi books: Mein Kampf and Rosenberg’s banned book on
Catholicism and the new German faith. Nor did I see more
than five Hitler flags.

This reminds me of similar evidences noted in Constance.
The last week I was there, solemn warnings of the German

MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, IQSS 273

Government against Catholics and any sort of criticism of the
Hitler regime were posted about the streets of the ancient
town. Within three or four days all were tom down, although
such an act is treason under German law. On August 25, I
went to the Munster Catholic church. There were not enough
seats for the people, scores standing through the service. The
sermon began at 9 15 and the preacher very cleverly criticized
the German Government, calling upon all Catholics to train
their children, to profess publicly their faith and to let every-
body know their loyalty. At ii o’clock, I went to the St.
Stephen church where hundreds of German soldiers had re-
served seats. I expected a sermon of the Nazi faith or perhaps
a Catholic endorsement of Hitler’s system. The church was
even more crowded than Munster, but the sermon was much
the same as the other.

The aisles were full of people who could not find seats. I
asked those standing near me about this extraordinary church
attendance. The reply was: ‘Tt is this way all the time and
with all the churches.” Constance is certainly religious-minded.
If the eight or ten other churches were as well attended, there
must have been more than 20,000 worshippers that day. I was
not able to attend a Protestant church, but reports were, ‘‘they
are equally well attended.” Germany for once in the last half
century seems really religious, or is it an expression of political
opposition silently registered through the Church?

At 1 1 o’clock I took a sleeper for Berlin. I was quite tired,
but greatly impressed with the spirit of the people in South
Germany. I saw no demonstrations of Nazi enthusiasm, and
very few flags anywhere Farmers and small townsfolk seemed
very busy and prosperous.

My three weeks off duty and on a strict regime of diet, mas-
sages and exercise did considerable good. My headaches had
almost ceased. However, I think it was more relaxation, exer-
cise and sunshine than anything else.

August Tuesday. In Berlin at 8 and in the office again
at 10. A pile of letters lay on my desk. The new Italian Am-
bassador called to pay his respects to the American Govern-
ment and to talk about a Jewish difficulty he has on his hands

274 22, 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25 , 1935

here. A prominent Italian art collector who had decorated
German Government buildings is now to be expelled from Ger-
many but forbidden to take any of his property with him. The
Ambassador asked about my experiences in similar difficulties.
I could not encourage him. I let him know that I had tried
often to persuade Hitler people to cease their violence and
ruthless treatment, but said, although the Foreign Office officials
had tried to do something, there had been no results He also
reported that there was no genuine feeling for support of war
in his country.

September 4, Wednesday, Mr. Williams of the Christian Science
Monitor^ a friend of Lord Astor, is here after a visit to London.
He reported that England is about to make a loan to Ger-
many. I have heard already that such a thing is on foot,
Schacht being active in negotiations. The English are in a very
dangerous position as Italy goes on with her war programme.
If pacifist England does not actually begin war, or threaten
Mussolini, she will lose the Suez Canal.

September g, Monday We had a luncheon with the interest-
ing Dr. Schmitt, former Minister of Economics, as the honour
guest. Schmitt was an able, courageous German who often
spoke his mind in public addresses. Lie is now head of an
association of insurance companies, but the fact that he still
lives in Berlin has not been announced in a single paper. His
talk today revealed his hope, a common hope here, that Ger-
many and England would never again come into conflict. He
is strongly opposed to Mussohni’s war moves. The Egyptian
Minister was also with us — his outstanding fear is that Italy
intends to conquer the Suez Canal Zone and control Egypt.
“I have warned the British for a year that this is the object of
the Duce,” he said.

September 14, Saturday. Mr. and Mrs. S. R. Fuller called at
the house today. Mr. Fuller, who is a friend of President Roose-
velt, owns large rayon interests in Tennessee, is connected with
Dutch and Italian interests manufacturing rayon, and is also
a part owner of similar corporations m Germany, including a

MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, IQSS Syj

large industrial plant in Hanover. He is not allowed to go
into this plant any longer. ‘‘The German Government is prob-
ably making use of our inventions and does not wish me to
know it/’ he said.

The Dutch Minister called. He said three Dutch Jews en-
gaged in business here had been ordered to close their shops,
leave the country and not take their property. “I went at once
to the Foreign Office and reported that my government would
confiscate the property of three Germans in Holland if the
Germans confiscated the property of the Dutch Jews. I was
promised the matter would be delayed until January i.”

September ig, Thursday, The new Italian Ambassador Atto-
lico called. He reported interesting facts about the Nurnberg
meeting which he was practically compelled to attend. Hitler
set forward the date of his formal reception so as to see him the
day before the show began and invite him personally. He sa,id
he went and really liked it better than he expected. His belief
is that Germany begins to worship Hitler. I agreed to the extent
of 40 per cent of the people. They consider Hitler a sort of
Jesus Christ and show a semi-religious attitude, but I am. con-
vinced that the Catholics are not even half Hitlerite. Half tlie
Lutherans are perhaps submissive, but the Evangelicals (Cal-
vinists) are not one third sympathetic. The Ambassador talked
quite a while about Mussolini whom he does not like at all,
though he did not say so. He is opposed to the Abyssinian war
but only showed this indirectly.

September 25. Wednesday Sigrid Schultz came to talk aboxit
the drift of things. She told a curious story of a German high
school teacher being dismissed because he said to his histojy
class that Frederick II made some mistakes. The man is not
allowed to resume his teaching.

September 27, Friday Hoping to get information about the
Italian-Ethiopian war, about to break, I called on the French
Ambassador. We talked half an hour but I gained only a little
information about the French position. He is more concerned

276 MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25 , I935

all the time about the German situation, also about the divided
opinion in France over everything. He has no particular liking
for the English.

I then went to the British Embassy where Sir Eric Phipps
talked freely enough but gave no information except that he
was very uneasy lest a war break out m the Mediterranean Sea,
where one of his sons is an officer on a warship. He agreed that
Mussolini really aims at getting control of the Suez Canal and
of Egypt. That means the beginning of the decline of the
British Empire, not unlike the decline of Holland after 1713, I
said. He did not say “no’’ and I did not press the point for dis-
cussion. It is plain to me that if Italy wins the struggle against
Abyssinia, the League of Nations will mean nothing in the
future and England’s position will be increasingly difficult.
What a pity to have the leader of modern civilization lose its
power and prestige ! The land of Shakespeare and Milton going
under.

October 7. Monday I had a curious official talk today with
Dr. Dieckhoff about the 1923 treaty with the United States,
article 7 of which was denounced a year ago without any con-
sultation with me It was done a year ago in the hope that the
United States would be pressed into amending the treaty
favourably. That has not happened, and today we sat down
together solemnly and signed duplicate documents confirming
the annulment of the part of the treaty which gave Germany
the only prospect of lower tariffs on her goods exported to the
United States. We signed our names and after friendly regrets
on both sides, parted.

It was a little strange that Von Neurath had made a point of
being out of town for several days when it was his business to
hold this conference with me. I had notified him two weeks be-
fore that I was ready to call and sign with him. Secretary Hull
had done the same with Ambassador Luther in Washington. I
think Von Neurath wished to have Dieckhoff manage the mat-
ter as a sort of complaint to the State Department in Washing-
ton, perhaps as a rebuff to me because of my absence from the
great Party show in Nurnberg. However, I gave no hint that I
noticed the little jilt.

MAY 22, 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25 , 1935 277

October 8, Tuesday, Ambassador Cudahy from Poland came
m for greetings. He impressed me more favourably than any
other diplomat we have seen. He was inexperienced when he
came in 19335 but he has worked hard in his position and seems
to me to be a useful representative of his country, even though
he is a rich American. His story of things in Washington and
Chicago was quite revealing. In spite of his privileged position,
he is a real supporter of Roosevelt and wishes to go home in
1936 to canvass for him, perhaps to spend his money.

Cudahy^ s knowledge of Poland’s position and relations with
Germany seems to me to be good. He departed, urging us to
drive up to Warsaw and spend a week with him. I could not
promise. I have no time, much as I would like to go to poor
Poland — its people so incapable of democratic government, even
more than the Germans.

October 10. Thursday, We had former Ambassador Schur-
man to lunch today, with an interesting group of Germans who
knew him when he was here Schurman was president of Cor-
nell University, succeeding Andrew D White who had been
Minister in Berlin under McKinley. Schurman was in Berlin
from 1925 to 1930. He is now eighty-one years old and still a
very active man. He was particular to ask me whether he
should request an interview with Hitler. I declined definite
advice because I thought he might call at the Foreign Office
and it would then be polite for the Chancellor to invite him to
call. When Schurman was here, he got Americans to give
Heidelberg University a building and he was very popular.
When he visited Berlin in April, 1933, Von Hindenburg in-
vited him to call, and they had a long conversation about
American affairs and German problems. Schurman quickly
concluded not to call on Hitler, though not on my advice. I
simply suggested he call on his acquaintances in the Foreign
Office.

I came to my office a little late. I found the Russian Ambas-
sador was coming in a few minutes. I had not seen him for some
time. He is a very agreeable and clever man, but a Communist.
Berlin almost ignores him, except for the French Ambassador.
I was glad to see him- What he came for I could not guess, per-

278 MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, I935

haps in the hope of meeting Ambassador Bullitt who is due to-
morrow, but we had already made up our party and I had not
thought the Russian would be comfortable since we had to have
some eminent German officials. Anyway we talked nearly an
hour and I learned what he hoped the League of Nations would
do in spite of his sharp dislike of Englsmd. I intend to return
his call soon.

October 14. Monday. Dr. Schurman brought a friend, Ben
Smith of New York City, to see me. After a good deal of talk
about conditions at home. Smith quite frankly remarked: “I
am a New York speculator, but also a close friend of President
Roosevelt.” That surprised me a little: first, that he would
acknowledge such a profession; second, that he had confidential
relations with the President. Dr. Schurman told me, in an aside,
as they were leaving, that his firiend Smith was a clever specu-
lator who violated all bankers’ advice in 1929 and sold stock
short in such enormous amounts as to make many millions.
Was that patriotic?

October i6. Wednesday. I went at 5 o’clock to the Kaiserhof
Hotel to attend a Nazi tea and to hear Hanns Kerri, Minister
for Church Affairs, explain the Party attitude to the Evangelical
churches of Germany. Kerri is supposed to succeed Reichs-
bishop Mueller who has made church matters exceedingly
difficult, keeping scores of dissenting Lutherans in jail.

Many of the diplomatic people were present, the French,
English, Italian and others, also many German professors and
scientific people. Kerri spoke for an hour and a half : The Nazi
Party members are the true Christians of Germany and all
church folk must ultimately become Nazi Christians. I asked a
man who sat near me if Kerri had ever read the Sermon on the
Mount. My neighbour laughed but would not talk. Kerri
argued that Hitler had done for modern civilization what Coper-
nicus had done when he discovered proof that the world was
round, not flat as all Christians then believed. With all kinds
of naive arguments he carried the parallel to the limit. All
the world, he said, would ultimately accept the Hitler idea
as “our ancestors had ultimately accepted Copernicus.” He

MAY 22, 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25 , 1935 ^19

preached a sermon calling upon us all to surrender to the new
discovery.

The audience did not applaud except mildly at the close
of the speech. Very few gave the Hitler gesture in response
to the speaker’s salute as he sat down. In my opinion, three-
fourths of the audience did not treat seriously what had been
said.

October i 8 . Friday. I sat by Dr. Schacht at luncheon today.
Twenty people were there, some Americans and many Germans.
Dr. Schurman was the guest of honour. Schacht indicated in
rather sharp language his pro-Italian attitude and his great dis-
like of England and the League of Nations. “Why apply those
sanctions to defeat Italy’s legitimate demand for colonial pos-
sessions?” He showed no concern at all about the cruelty of
seizing other people’s territory and killing thousands of people.
He did not protest against the attitude of the United States,
but made it plain that he was opposed to it. He seemed to fear
Italy would be defeated and, if so, that it would mean a sharp
limitation on Germany when she comes to the point of seizing
territory. He was more anti-League than I had ever noticed
before.

October 20. Sunday. One has no rest here even on Sunday. I
go to the office each Sunday about 10 a m. There is always a
radio report of events in Washington and the United States
which one has to read closely. Sometimes there is a cable asking
information, and half the Sundays there is a bunch of letters to
be read, sometimes answered at once. Since the government
furnishes no stenographer, I have to write very many letters by
hand and Sunday is the best time.

Today Louis Fischer, of The J^ation^ New York, came directly
from Moscow where he has lived for many years Knowing
the attitude of The Nation, I intimated early in our conversa-
tion that propaganda was the curse of our time. When he
seemed a little troubled and asked what I meant, I told him
the story of my experience with the New York Von Steuben
Society which escorted about fifty German-American Nazis
through Germany. This made Fischer’s defence of propaganda

28 o may 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, 1935

difficult, for if Communist propaganda is right in the United
States then Nazi propagandists have a similar right to press
their philosophy upon our country.

Fischer was really puzzled to find a defence. We talked about
the misrepresentations and omissions of history, and about the
duty of each country to have its real history taught to its people.
He was surprised at several facts of our history and it became
clear that he had never really studied Jefferson. He did not
know that Jefferson tried all his life to bring about gradual
abolition of slavery. It was clear that, although a widely read
reporter on Communism, he was less well informed about the
history of the long struggle for democracy in the United States.
He did not know what sort of propaganda Lincoln sent to
England in 1862 : Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet B. Stowe
and a score of others. At 12.30 I was out for my hour’s walk.

October 24, Thursday, Senator James Hamilton Lewis of
Chicago, here a month ago, came back from Moscow where he
was desperately ill some two or three weeks I called on him
at the Adlon Hotel. He looked quite feeble. He insisted on
thanking me and my wife for sending a nurse to him from
Berlin and especially for sending hominy grits to eat when he
began to recover from pneumonia. He could find none m
Russia and he could not digest other food for some days. It was
a curious incident: At 12 o’clock one night when all of us here
were in bed, there came a phone call from Russia through the
New York Times office. It urged shipment of grits by aircraft
next morning at 7.30. My wife was the only one in the house
who heard the call. She answered and agreed to furnish two
boxes if the Times man would call and take the boxes to the air-
field. He agreed and the foodstuff was thus forwarded. The
Senator insisted that we had saved his life.

October 25, Friday, Robert H. Jackson, a very able young
lawyer from the Treasury Department in Washington, was one
of my callers this morning He talked freely of the great diffi-
culty President Roosevelt has had to bring utility men and
financiers to see what must be done if we are to escape another
depression and a worse social dilemma. What he said about his

MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25 , I935 281

chief Morgenthau was reassuring. The President knows his diffi-
culty and is doing his utmost to avoid any moves that might
lead to a Tory victory in 1936. He thinks Roosevelt will win,
but fears the American people will not know what the economic
situation is and elect a Congress which will be unwilling to co-
operate in constructive work. That is my fear, even if Roosevelt
should win with as big a majority as in 1932. Mr. Jackson seems
to me to be the ablest and wisest man who has come here from
the United States in a long time.

At 5.30 my friend Professor Wolfgang Windelband called
and sadly informed me that he had been ordered to give up his
position and go to Halle. He says he will resign rather than
obey the arbitrary order. “If I went to Halle there would be
Hitler Jugend demonstrations against me, no students would
register for my work, and in a few months I would be dis-
missed.’’ This looks to me to be a true explanation.

The embarrassed professor, indignant to the limit, wondered
if there were a possibility of his finding a position in the United
States. I could not promise anything more than some friendly
letters to American university presidents. We have so many un-
employed young scholars at home that I could not give much
encouragement.

Only a day or two ago Attache Miller had brought me the
story that the German Government had ordered automobile,
typewriter and sewing-machine companies in the United States
to cease sending parts free of charge to their branch offices here.
This means that the 60,000 American cars in Germany must be
repaired by Germans who cannot reproduce patented parts. This
will compel the owners of the cars to buy new ones of German
make when their cars are in need of serious repairs. This looks
like an American barrier of 1930 days, and is certain to cause
agitation for further United States discrimination against
German goods.

Movember 2. Saturday, I drove as unobtrusively as possible
in a taxi to the office of Dr. Schmitt, former Minister of Econo-
mics under Hitler. Schmitt is the only real statesman I know
in Germany who has held office under Hitler, though Schacht is
a financial wizard of the highest order. I reported in all con-

282 MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, 1935

fidence the facts about Professor Windelband. He had not
heard of the case, but he knew of the scheme of Rosenberg and
Frank to force upon German universities the teaching and writ-
ing of propaganda instead of history. He said it was a crazy
scheme but that Hitler was committed to it. However, he said
he would try to influence Hitler when he saw him again, and
then asked me to speak to Von Neurath. I said that would not
do, as the whole thing was personal and in no way official.
Schmitt agreed, however, that relations with the United States
could not improve as long as such men as Rosenberg and Frank
play the roles they do.

Schmitt then talked about the very dangerous position Ger-
many is in, especially its financial situation, so long as so much
of the national income is devoted to rearmament. He went so
far as to say Germany was headed for war and that any war she
might precipitate would bring upon his country a worse disaster
than that of 1918-19. He argued that the only way of salvation
for Germany lay in re-entrance into the League of Nations and
renewal of better economic relations between Germany, Eng-
land and the United States I said National Socialism was con-
trary to such a policy. He agreed, but added that Hitler is more
open to reason on this policy than ever before. Dr. Schacht, he
said, had indicated a certain drift in that direction, contrary to
what Schacht said to me the last time I saw him. I am certainly
not convinced of this. Schmitt argued that Germany must have
colonial possessions and that England was ready to grant these
through the League if Germany returned. He said that Italy
ought to be defeated because her invasion of Abyssinia was not
the way to get new colonial possessions.

November 7. Thursday. At 7 o’clock, we sat down in a box
of a Berlin theatre with the French Ambassador and his wife.
The performance was to be Goethe’s famous Egmont. Hitler
came on time, Goering by his side. The audience rose and
cheered, but very moderately. They did not turn around in their
places and heil Hitler as I had witnessed more than once
before. Hitler looked our way and we bowed but of course did
not give the Party salute

Then the play began. Furtwangler was again leading the

MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, 1935 ^83

orchestra; he had been restored to favour. For an hour it went
on. It was well done. Then came the intermission. All guests
moved in the direction where Hitler and Goering, our hosts,
were supposed to be. They were not to be found, but Dr.
Goebbels stood at the entrance to the Hitler stall to greet all who
approached him. Most of us did, but there was of course no real
conversation.

I asked Von Ribbentrop teasingly what he was doing to keep
the peace of Europe. He said : “AJl I can,"’ but he was in no
sense communicative, though the common talk of the last week
or two has been that he is negotiating with secret agents of
Laval, the French Foreign Secretary. M. Frangois-Poncet said
to me : ‘‘There are negotiations ; but I do not know what is up.
However, nothing is to be expected within quite a time.” I sus-
pect something between France, England and Germany when-
ever Mussolini is brought to terms.

November 12. Tuesday, The next caller was Cornelius Lothrop,
member, he claimed, of a famous Boston family of that
name. He said he was unemployed at home and had come to
Berlin to teach English to Germans. He wanted a gift of money
to help him along until January i, when he expected a
position. I felt obliged to decline. Perhaps I was wrong,
but so many people come for similar purposes, especially to
sing

In the afternoon John L. Spivak called, with letter from a
Chicago friend of mine, R. M. Lovett, to get possible informa-
tion for a book about Italy, Germany and Poland. I asked, Why
not Russia? As he won a national reputation last winter with a
book on German propaganda in the United States, I felt that he
must include Russia qr his work would be regarded as anti-
German and pro-Russian. He was a little surprised. But I gave
him certain information, confidentially, and told him whom to
see in Germany, and if possible to travel about the country
speaking German and learning for himself. He was rather
uneasy lest he be arrested and thrust into prison tnppmmu*
nicado, I was a little disposed to agree, since similar people
have been thrown out of the country or imprisoned without
trial.

284 may 22, 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, I935

J^ovember 13. Wednesday. Since we are so well acquainted, I
asked the Dutch Minister today how he felt about meeting Hit-
ler, Goering and Goebbels. He said he never had interviews
with Hitler and never accepted invitations to their spectacles or
entertainments. I have not talked with Hitler since February 6,
1934, or Goering since June of the same year. Goebbels had us
to dinner in early June, 1934. It is rather difficult to remain in
my position here and never have any of the triumvirate with us
socially. They are the governors of Germany and I represent
the United States here. But it is so humiliating to me to shake
hands with known and confessed murderers. I am inclined to do
the same as the Dutch Mmister to the end of my service. May,
1936, as I now think.

November 16. Saturday. We lunched with the Italian Am-
bassador. The reception-room was cold, about 60® Fahrenheit.
The dining-room was not much warmer. I was as uncomfortable
as I had been in September at Professor Windelband’s The
palace is a wonderfully elaborate and roomy house, representing
a great cost for a country that owes the United States two billions
or something like that and never even apologizes for not paying
any part of the interest due. The furniture and paintings are
very valuable, everything beautiful and in good taste, but I
would be ashamed, if I were the Ambassador, to invite an
American official to the place. I left early because I had a cold
coming. I went to bed and took aspirin in the hope of fighting
off another attack.

November ig. Tuesday. At 11.30 I called on the Soviet Am-
bassador here, in his magnificent palace, far greater t h ?^ n
that of the Italian. But only one butler showed me to the
office, other embassies having several such servants. He showed
no disposition to take, or expect, a tip, the only place in Berlin
where one does not give a half or a whole mark every time one
calls. ^

The Ambassador had just returned from Moscow at a mo-
ment of uneasiness about the Japanese invasion of North China.
I intimated that if the Russian Government had kept its pro-

MAY 22 , 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25, 1935 285

raises of 1933, our President and the English Government might
have made a joint protest in Tokyo, and that might have pre-
vented this sort of aggressive conduct in North China. He did
not say he agreed, but I was sure he did agree. I added : If these
countries were to protest and threaten a boycott of Japan, the
war would be stopped. He at once said he wished to cable my
remarks to Moscow. I said : If you do, do not intimate that it is
anything more than my opinion.

November 21. Thursday, An expert of the Department of
Labour in Washington called for a short visit this morning. He
is one of the many Americans who try to study Germany
although they know no German. He seemed to be a well-
informed official and by no means disposed to parade
himself.

November 25, Monday, Ambassador Bullitt from Moscov^
came in this morning. He showed a real recovery from the
disease which troubled him when he was here last September.
His remarks about Russia were directly contradictory to the
attitudes he held when he passed this way last year. Then he was
to all intents and purposes enthusiastic. But Bullitt is the heir
to a great fortune and was known as a liberal contributor to the
Roosevelt campaign in 1932. My gift was $25.

One thing he told me which surprised me was that when he
left Moscow last autumn President Roosevelt asked him to visit
China and report on Japanese plans and activity in the Far East.
He says now that China will make a terrible and determined
resistance if Japan presses for domination of North China. One
general alone there has 100,000 troops who will put the Japa-
nese army out of existence. I do not accept this. Bullitt said
Russia had no business trying to hold the peninsula which pro-
jects into the Japanese sea at Vladivostok. That is all going to
be taken soon by Japan. I said : You agree that if the Germans
have their way Russia with 160,000,000 people shall be denied
access to the Pacific, and be excluded from the Baltic? He said :
‘‘Oh, that makes no difference.” But I could not help adding:
You know this treatment of Russia over the last two hundred

286 MAY 22, 1935 TO NOVEMBER 25 , 1935

years has caused many wars. He replied only : “Ireland keeps
England off the seas.’’

I was amazed at this kind of talk from a responsible diplomat
who had done much to get Russia recognized in 1933. The
President must know the man’s mentality, but if so, how could
he have appointed him Ambassador to Soviet Russia?

VIII

November 26 ^ ig^S to February igg 6

November 26. Tuesday. I include a report from a French
source about Schacht’s troubles :

The trouble that Schacht is m is this : He began to question
and investigate and think curious the number of German bank
notes in foreign countries which he had not checked out. The
exact financial details of this I didn’t understand. Anyway he
suspected something was wrong So he began to investigate the
loads of coal that went from Germany and discovered several
old boxes, etc., concealed in the piles of coal which apparently
the Jews had put there as a means of smuggling out their own
money. However, even this did not account for the tremendous
sums in other countries. He began to suspect an official leakage.
So he marked with a special number and system some hundreds
of thousands of marks in bank notes that went to Rosenberg,
Himmler and Goebbels. These same bank notes turned up in
foreign countries, revealing, with a little spy work, that these
three men were financing their agents of propaganda abroad,
not only with the money set aside officially for propaganda by
Schacht but also with tremendous sums they could scrape to-
gether through other sources of income, not allowed, according
to Schacht, to leave the country.

They have been pocketing these private funds and using them
abroad for their agents. Schacht went in a fury to Hitler and
told him the whole thing had to stop or Germany would be
bankrupt. Hitler has not as yet taken sides but this is the reason
that Schacht is in danger.

November 27. Wednesday Max Warburg reported today
that he and Dr. Schacht had not been able to do anything to
relieve the Jewish situation. His information about the financial
abuses here, especially the Goebbels group activity, was the same
I had heard from other sources.

288 NOVEMBER 26, I935 TO FEBRUARY I, I936

November 28. Thursday, Thomas J. Watson of New York
City, business man with a salary amounting to $1,000 a day
from several big corporations, spent an hour with me. Strangely
enough, he is strongly Rooseveltian and convinced that if big
business insists on defeating democracy in the United States
there will be a revolution which may lose business men all they
have. He favours income tax at rates like those of the British,
which are very high, and he is for lowering tariffs. He is oppos-
ing the attitudes of Newton Baker and John W. Davis in their
fight against the Federal Utility Act.

November 2Q. Friday, We dined with thirty other guests at
the home of Herr Karl Trutz. Many people were present, some
university men with their wives. Whenever the conversation
bore at all upon the present regime here, great dissatisfaction
was expressed. Not a favourable word was spoken. I was at one
end of the dining-room, my wife at the other. She heard noth-
ing but criticism, so much that she did not venture any remarks
that could reveal her attitude. I was perhaps a litde freer. These
poor German people !

To complete my hard day’s work we all went to the Adlon
Hotel as guests of the foreign press people to a supper and
dance. Prince Louis Ferdinand went with Martha and even in
our car, which I had gently discouraged. I thought his being
with us might cause trouble to him. But he insisted. There was
some surprise shown as we entered the large dining-hall. Frau
Sahm, wife of the dismissed Mayor of Berlin, sat on my right,
the Mayor on the left of Sigrid Schultz, our hostess. These
poor people were most unhappy and conversation was quite dis-
tressed. The Mayor was the foremost in German mayoralty
service, thirty years at the head of cities. He was dismissed with
the approval of Hitler because he was not an enthusiastic Party
member.

Herr Lewald, the Olympic Games chief, sat opposite. Nor
was he happy, news having come over that Americans might
not participate in the great show next summer. We could not
talk about that. But Lewald is a quarter Jew, a fact recently dis-
covered here and published in the newspapers. I wondered what
his real thoughts were. I was asked in January, 1935, by a Ger-

NOVEMBER 26, 1035 TO FEBRUARY I, I936 289

man official in America to aid in securing permission of the
United States War Department for the purchase of a new model
of rifle made at the army arsenal in Springfield. This was a pe-
culiar request because it seemed to me all such things should go
directly through our War Department. The official said that the
Olympic Committee wanted such arms for ^‘training purposes,’^

The next table to us accommodated the British and Russian
Ambassadors, who hardly spoke to each other, and Monsieur
Frangois-Poncet who seemed to be cordial to both. The poor
Russian, perhaps the best intellect in the diplomatic service here,
was left almost alone. Prince Louis Ferdinand went over to
greet him though he had sent word to Miss Schultz that he
could not sit at her table if the Russian were there, Communist
executions of his Imperial kinsfolk in 1917 being the cause. It is
my opinion the Russian Ambassador is not a proselytizing Com-
munist, Von Neurath was equally indifferent, though he sat op-
posite the Russian. The last time we were at the Russian Em-
bassy, Von Neurath was very cordial and many of the highest
military men were equally friendly. At that time a treaty was
being talked of and the old Bismarckian element of Germany
has always been pro-Russian in a measure.

December i, Sunday. There is no end to entertainments. At
9 o’clock we went to the Swiss Minister’s place, where there
were an enormous crowd and about fifteen musicians. For two
hours we listened to Bach and other eighteenth-century German
music composers. It was exceedingly good, though my poor taste
for that sort of art prevented my enjoyment to the full. To me
Bach was the best. When the performers ceased their functions
and received long applause, the crowd jammed into a dining-
room so crowded one could hardly move. They ate and drank
for an hour, but I kept out of the room. Home again a little
after 12 o’clock. I must say the Swiss Minister and his wife
were, as usual, most agreeable and entertaining. They have
been here many years, and are very much troubled now.

December 2. Monday. Our new Counsellor is here and ready
to take up the work Mr. White is leaving. The Counsellor,
Mr. Mayer, is from Indianapolis, and has served three years at

K

1200 NOVEMBER 26, I935 TO FEBRUARY I, I936

Geneva. I accompanied him to the Foreign Office and intro-
duced him to Von Bulow and Dr. Dieckhoff. We had a very
agreeable conversation.

December 5. Tuesday, Sir Alexander Lawrence, a rather
famous Englishman, was more than an hour with me. He under-
stands German plans as well as any German outside the govern-
ing group. I raised the question of fhe British attitude on oil
sanctions against Italy. He said he was in entire agreement and
hoped his country, France and the United States would offer a
solid front, compel Italy to surrender and try to force Musso-
lini’s overthrow. He said he had a home for winter residence in
the neighbourhood of Florence, I believe, and that the people
very frankly condemned and denounced the war scheme the last
time he was there. He was convinced the people of Italy would
gladly get rid of the Duce if they ever had a chance.

As to Germany, he said he was certain the scheme of Hitler’s
Mein Kampf to conquer a large part of Russia had not changed
at all. He added that England was a lot more interested in Ger-
many than Italy. Yet he agreed with Minister Eden who de-
mands a boycott of Italy’s oil supply until she collapses. He also
expressed great hope that the^ President of the United States
could co-operate.

I said : Yes, the sanctions would be useful and would probably
be applied if England really did what she was discussing. I then
raised the question of England’s attitude towards Japanese ag-
gression. He said : *^Sir John Simon made our greatest blunder
since the League began by refusing to co-operate with the
United States when Manchoukuo was seized in 1931.”

I talked then about the World War. He had no belief that
Germany would have won even if Wilson had not entered the
war in 1917. It was a peculiar attitude for an intelligent and
highly experienced observer. Perhaps all Englishmen have
overlooked the fact that France was about to collapse in March
and April, 1918, just as 300,000 American soldiers were arriv-
ing each month. That stopped Von Hindenburg’s and Luden-
dorff’s great drive which began about March 18. No real obliga-
tion to the United States was recognized, nor have I ever heard
a single Frenchman admit that Woodrow Wilson saved France,

NOVEMBER 26, 1035 TO FEBRUARY I, I936 29I

though all Germans say: ‘'Wilson defeated us, the treacherous
Wilson.’’

December 5 . Thursday, Colonel Edward A. Deeds of Akron,
Ohio, and New York City, president or director of twenty great
American industrial concerns including the National Gash
Register and the National City Bank, came to lunch today with
a score of others, Americans and Germans, including James
Hazen Hyde. Deeds had negotiated a deal with a German
corporation for sending over our airplane patents so that the
German company could manufacture and sell a hundred planes
to Italy, the American company to share the profits. This seemed
to me contrary to the spirit of the United States statute of
neutrality which had been enacted last August. This sort of
thing is done all the time in this European war atmosphere. I
telegraphed a report of this deal to Washington a day or two
ago. This news had come confidentially from a German aircraft
man.

Deeds talked all the time as though he were a good Roosevelt
friend and real American democrat. He is another of the rich
men who hang around European industrial centres, like the
Japanese, and sell war materials at high profits without fully
considering the real interests of their country. How should one
treat such persons who always claim to be enthusiastic friends?
A score of people talked two hours but said nothing — one of the
evils of diplomatic life.

December 6, Friday, We sat down to dinner with the famous
' Dr. Max Sering, a friend of Secretary Wallace and foremost
agricultural economist in Europe. Frau Sering was on my left
and Countess von Tirpitz, widow of the famous German
Admiral who did so much to anticipate American participation
in the World War, on my right. There was frank talk all the
evening.

One woman openly hoped I would help prevent Americans
from participating in the Olympic Games here next summer,
a risky remark to make Another was even more positive when,
describing her residence in the mountains of Bavaria, she said she
could never think of living in Berlin under such a regime as that of

202 NOVEMBER 265 IQSS TO FEBRUARY I, I936

Hitler, She denounced the constant and amazing preparations
for war. In spite of all her past connections with the autocratic
Hohenzollern regime she said war was a horror and should
never be provoked again. Her contempt for Mussolini was com-
plete. I did not say much; but it was evident that almost all
present were of the same attitude.

Before we left Dr. Sering and I talked together a few minutes.
Getting off the general subject of complaint against the present
regime, he said : ^^Germany’s economic interests must spread
over the Balkan zone, where there must be an exchange of
industrial for agricultural goods I did not say to him that
under the policy of Hitler and the present barter system which
works so badly, Germany produces so nearly all the foodstuffs
she needs that the Balkan folk cannot sell their meats and grains
here.

He added : ^^Of course political co-operation must follow.”
This was not discussed because I did not care to remind him that
the old Kaiser’s policy of expanding towards Constantinople was
the chief cause of the World War. It is an instinctive policy of
national-minded and even moderate Germans to annex parts of
the Balkan states and dominate the others, just as Mussolini
thinks the Mediterranean Sea and the countries bordering it are
properly his, perhaps excepting France.

December g. Monday, We dined at the house of the former
Finance Minister, Dr. Dietrich, of the Bruening period. There
were some thirty people present, former officials and university
folk, and the sentiment was as critical and hopeless as at the
two preceding dinners. Although there were some Nazi uni-
forms present, I heard not a single statement in praise of the
present-day system. What can all this mean? Eminent official
and unofficial people are all of the same mind even in the
presence of Nazi officials. I cannot recall their names, as I
cannot possibly remember German and French names unless I
hear them pronounced several times.

The Minister of Rumania singled me out and talked almost
violently about the Hoare-Laval proposition sent to Mussolini
last Saturday and discussed in the press here today. He said his
country was ready any time to apply oil sanctions to Italy, '"'and

NOVEMBER 26 , 1935 TO FEBRUARY I, IQSS 203

now, when all of us smaller nations and the United States are
ready to stop oil shipments to Italy, England and France make
a surrender without consulting us or the League.” He was
indignant.

I had heard previously that the reason for the Hoare-Laval
proposition \yas the English-French fear that Communism
might come to Italy in case Mussolini falls. I think this is
probably partly true, and that Nazi Germany certainly wants
to see Mussolini successful. Perhaps these two dictators have
already made an agreement.

December 12, Thursday. These are busy days. Mr. Mayer
and I called on Monsieur Frangois-Poncet at 12 o’clock and
remained half an hour. He mentioned to us the Hoare-Laval
matter and thought Mussolini would make an agreement with
England and France and so end the Ethiopian crime. I at once
disagreed. If Mussohni does accept, which I doubt, it means
control of the Mediterranean and collapse of the League of
Nations. Mussolini thinks himself a Julius Caesar.

Fran^ois-Poncet argued strongly for the Hoare-Laval propo-
sition. I said: It’s the biggest mistake since the World War.
It means an Italian-German combination for redistribution of
eastern and southern Europe, and such a combination cannot be
defeated by England and France. Why did your governments
not apply the oil sanction through the League with American
co-operation and bring Mussolini to terms?

He said: ‘'Mussolini would have made war even if the oil
sanctions had been applied. We, the French Government, were
unwilling to go to war, even if England were attacked.” It was
an honest, frank discussion and Mr. Mayer agreed with me at
every point, which was significant since he had been at Geneva
three years. As we came away, Frangois-Poncet said: "Mr.
Ambassador, you are too logical.” Mr. Mayer said : "How can
a Frenchman ever blame anyone for being logical?”

December 13. Friday. Mrs. Anne O’Hare McCormick, who
writes for the New York Times so cleverly, came to ask for an
interview with Hitler, having had one a year ago. Her husband
was with her. They talked of their interview with Mussolini

294 NOVEMBER 26, IQSS TO FEBRUARY I, I 936

and said : ‘The Duce reported a conversation he had last spring
with Sir John Simon, British Foreign Secretary. He had no lik-
ing for the English. Sir John sat in conference at Stresa with his
eyes closed, perhaps asleep, until the Duce said : ‘You know, all
of you, that the Germans intend to annex everything to Bag-
dad!’ That awakened the British Foreign Secretary”

Mrs. McCormick told other things about Italy and its policy,
revealing that she was interested in the personality of the
Roman dictator. I pointed out to her that the Caesarian boasts
of Mussolini resembled the Frederick Barbarossa aims of Hitler,
both men being ill-informed and highly romantic, at the
same time cruel to the last degree. She saw something of my
interpretation of things, but she was very hopeful of seeing the
Fuehrer here. I told her we would suggest means of doing so,
but were very doubtful since Hitler has refused so often the last
few months. I suggested that she see Dr. Schacht who would
talk more frankly.

December 14, Saturday. I learned last evening from a secre-
tary of the French Embassy here that the British Ambassador
had an hour’s interview with Hitler and that he had pressed
again the idea of a general peace agreement among all the
greater powers including the Russians. Hitler pretended to be
willing to come to an armament agreement with the Western
powers, but broke into a furious denunciation of Russia, saying
that Germany must go to war against the Communists, the
wicked Communists, forgetting how much the Nazis here have
learned from Communist propaganda. Nothing seemed to be
agreed to, but two German officials were to depart soon for
London. I suspect this has merely to do with the naval confer-
ence which can hardly amount to anything, Germany and Japan
being united in naval matters.

I think Sir Eric Phipps was sent to Hitler as a sort of gesture
to distract public attention from the terrible blunder of the
Hoare-Laval proposition. However, the papers gave no atten-
tion to the incident but preached daily against the League of
Nations for having tried to apply sanctions, as if there were any
other way to stop a war except by applying them. For two
months the German Foreign Office people had been amazingly

NOVEMBER 26, 1035 TO FEBRUARY I, I 936 205

silent, gently intimating now and then that Germany might
apply sanctions if the United States continued its policy in that
direction. The real thing was that Nazi Germany feared to take
any attitude until she could see what happened to Mussolini
whom Hitler hates, although he imitates him. All military and
naval experts here report the utmost speed in German rearma-
ment. They are building the greatest military machine in the
world.

But now that England and France have taken a move that
threatens to break up the League, every German paper rejoices
and is almost willing to join Italy in her adventures.

At a tea gathering at our home this afternoon, the one subject
of concern was the Hoare-Laval proposal and the abandonment
of the sanctions policy of the League. The Russian Ambassador,
the Rumanian and the Czechoslovak Ministers were in confer-
ence half the time. They said the small powers of the Balkan
region would withdraw from the League if England’s policy
were applied: ‘‘There would be no safety for little states in
Europe in a League which does not prevent annexations like
that which Italy is attempting in East Africa.”

December i6, Monday, Since Von Neurath was with Hitler
when Sir Eric saw him, I called on him today. There were two
ministers of small countries with the Foreign Secretary when
I arrived, and they stayed fifteen minutes, talking about the
Balkan attitude towards the recent English-French policy. One
of them is on the way to Paris tonight.

Von Neurath was as agreeable as ever but gave no inkling of
Germany’s position. When I asked him what Germany would
do if Mussolini annexed Egypt, he said : “Nothing.” I then
said: Palestine and Greece would fall into Mussolini’s hands,
isn’t that true? He said : “Yes, but we shall do nothing even if
England and Italy go to war.” Since he is closer to Hitler now
than at any time since I came to Berlin, this seemed significant.
The real point, however, is as always here: “We are not yet
armed.”

December ig. Thursday. Colonel Claude A. Tupper, an engi-
neer and business man from Chicago, was here for half an hour.

296 NOVEMBER 26, I935 TO FEBRUARY I, I936

He revealed conflicting attitudes : much of Nazi work seemed
promising to him, a good deal of it unreasonable, especially the
propaganda in the United States. He had been an hour with
Dr. Schacht whom he had kpown when in Chicago some years
ago. “Schacht said to me,” he reported confidentially, “his ad-
dress delivered in Leipzig had been submitted to Hitler and
Hitler had approved it, yet the German newspapers did not
print a word of the critical parts.” This looks strange, but is not
unusual here. In a few days there will be a violent attack upon
the Jews either by Goebbels or Streicher, the Nurnberg propa-
gandist, and Hitler will have approved what is said.

The Colonel added that Schacht had said his situation is most
critical here, “so diflficult that I would like to jump off a ship
into the ocean.” I am quite sure Schacht said something like
this, for several times he has talked the same way to me. One
thing is fairly certain : If Schacht fails, there is apt to be a col-
lapse, and a financial collapse might bring the Hohenzollems to
the throne. Schacht would almost certainly be the Chancellor
under a parliamentary restoration. However the Hohenzollems
would have a hard time if they went on with the war
policy.

When Tupper spoke of the State Department in Washington
as receiving ridicule here and elsewhere in Europe I was a little
sceptical. He made an exception of Secretary Hull and I be-
lieve Hull’s trade liberalism is the one thing that is criticized
here though it seems to me the only promising policy of the
United States for Germany, even if Hull is not in sympathy
with the present Nazi regime.

December 20. Friday. The Dutch Minister reported that he
had heard no news that Dutch-English-American oil com-
panies — Shell, Sinclair and Standard — had brought pressure to
bear in London and Paris to stop the League sanctions against
Italy, especially oil sanctions. I had heard indirectly that a
Sinclair Oil man in Paris and some big business man in Lon-
don had applied pressure, and consequently I had dropped
the Dutch Minister a note on the subject. I am still of the
opinion that the oil companies used pressure. They have inter-
ests at stake, especially the Standard Oil Company, in Rumania

NOVEMBER 26, 1935 FEBRUARY I 936 297

and Persia, and their interests have in the past caused extra-
ordinary performances in America.

The German papers have suddenly ceased their fun-making
of the League. The House of Commons voted yesterday such
a sharp criticism of the Hoare-Laval scheme that Hoare
resigned. There is talk of Austen Chamberlain being made
Foreign Secretary, a man whose newspaper articles against Nazi
Germany have been so severe that the government here sent
a violent protest to London a few weeks ago. Imagine him
being appointed Foreign Secretary!

At 8 o’clock, I sat down by Von Papen, at a dinner given at
the Herren Club, the oldest and most aristocratic organization
in Berlin, I believe. There were forty or fifty men at the tables.
On my right sat the owner of the Frankfurter Z^itung^ inti-
mating his strong opposition to the Nazi regime. As I was not
free to respond. Von Papen being on my left, there could be
no outspoken criticism. To my surprise Von Papen quite openly
said: ‘‘Well, I see that your people have got rid of Huey
Long.” He then asked if there were real opposition to Roose-
velt. I said: Yes, big business is almost unanimously opposed,
and Father Coughlin is always breaking loose. Von Papen is a
Catholic, but he showed no sympathy with Coughlin.

When we all rose from the tables and found places in the
large library of the club there was group conversation which
indicated a strong approval of the British abandonment of
the Hoare-Laval business. One elderly man spoke with
enthusiasm of Woodrow Wilson as the one statesman of the
World War era — “a man who meant to put an end to war,”
he said. I am sorry I did not get his name. He added:
“There is far more approval of Wilson in Germany than you
suppose.”

December 21. Saturday. We lunched with the kindly, friendly
Eichbergs. Both are extremely miserable, no escape from
Germany being possible for them unless they give a big sum
to the Nazi Party and swear themselves no longer Jews or
perhaps illegitimate children of other people, reared by Jews,
as some Jews here have done. They have a beautiful library.
There were some people of high station at dinner, and the wife

298 NOVEMBER 26, TO FEBRUARY I, I936

of General von Seeckt of the army. Criticism was common
talk, but not by the host and hostess.

December 22. Sunday, At 4 o’clock, we had a tea-party for
Marriner, Counsellor in Paris, who stopped here on his way
to Warsaw. What Marriner said about events in Paris was very
interesting, Laval had put over on Sir Samuel Hoare his
scheme of extreme concessions to Mussolini. Now the French
people are more anti-Laval than before. We learned today, I
said, that Anthony Eden is to succeed Hoare. Marriner re-
plied, ^‘That would trouble Laval, but would not cause the
weakening of England’s position in Paris, the people being even
more against Mussolini than against the Laval Government.”

Marriner reported that Bullitt’s interview in Berlin on De-
cember I was telegraphed to Paris that day, and that Herriot’s
wife had read the telegram before Bullitt had arrived in Paris
about December 3. What Bullitt said here was astounding to
me in view of his past record. When Madame Herriot re-
ported to Marriner that Bullitt had spoken against Russia and
in favour of Japan, he was amazed. I had been so shocked at
his advice to the French Ambassador in Berlin not to favour the
Russian-French peace pact that I reported to the State Depart-
ment. I suspect Bullitt’s words were telegraphed to Washington
before he reached Paris.

There was much interesting talk about Eden’s appointment
in London and its meaning here. There is not apt to be any
more unfriendly League talk in German official circles Musso-
lini is a puzzle to Hitler, who is reported to hate him, yet he
must praise him for seizing Ethiopian territory.

December 23. Monday I received a letter from our Minister
in Prague saying that an American journalist has been in the
terrible Dachau concentration camp near Munich for several
months, not allowed to write to me or to the Consul in Berlin,
where he was seized. I referred the matter at once to
Consul Geist, the best-informed person here to run down such
stories.

December 2g, Sunday, We had some free time this last week,

NOVEMBER 265 1935 TO FEBRUARY I, I936 299

though my wife and daughter were busy half the time filling
the house with Christmas decorations, a tall tree, flowers and
little lights to make the house look joyful. Everything was
beautiful enough, but restful hours were of chief importance
for me.

I received a letter today from a friend in the State Depart-
ment, asking me to cable what it was best in my opinion to do
to check the Italian war which threatens now to involve France,
England and the little Mediterranean powers. I reviewed the
situation as best I could and had a brief statement in mind as I
went home to dinner today, after two hours in the office.

We had information a few days ago that Secretary William
Phillips, in London for the naval conference, is to arrive here
tomorrow. We have arranged to have twenty people to meet
him, including the British and French Ambassadors, Dieckhoff
and Ritter from the German Foreign Office, and others like
young Prince Louis Ferdinand Von Neurath and Dr Schacht
as well as nearly all other higher German officials are at their
country estates until January 8, the German custom at Christ-
mas time. Mr. Phillips told Mr. Mayer of the staff here by
long-distance phone that he wishes to meet Hitler. We had to
say . There is no chance unless you can remain past January 8,
1936, Hitler being at Berchtesgaden in Bavaria.

December 30, Monday. Secretary Phillips spent an hour talk-
ing over the difficulties in the United States and the almost
certain failure of the naval conference in London where he
renews his task on January 5. The outlook is not good, ‘‘and
all high officials in London expect war with Italy.” How fool-
ish are these European governments, especially the dictator-
ships, not to find some way to settle their diSiculties peaceably !
Nor is our country any wiser. The folly was when America
refused to co-operate with the League of Nations and now
must spend nearly a billion a year of the people’s money
preparing for war.

At 1 1 .30 we had all our experts, including the staff members,
come to meet Mr. Phillips and give him up-to-date informa-
tion about all phases of German activity. “Germany is one vast
military camp,” said Major Smith, Military Attach^. Our Com-

300 NOVEMBER 26, I935 TO FEBRUARY I, I936

mercial Attache said, ‘‘In two years Germany will be manu-
facturing oil and gas enough out of soft coal for a long war,
the Standard Oil Company of New York furnishing millions
of dollars to help.’’ “The substitutes for cotton which the Ger-
mans are making are rapidly reaching such a stage that Ameri-
can cotton can be dispensed with” was the opinion of Captain
Crockett who described the wonderful cloths and war-stuflFs
made from combinations of wood and straw of various kinds.

Mr. Phillips was amazed and distressed, although all this
information has been going to the Department for two whole
years. But no high official can master all the reports as they
pile up there- Major Smith agreed to take Phillips to see the
vast camps and airfields tomorrow.

At 12 o’clock, some thirty press people came to hear what
Mr. Phillips might say and to answer questions as to what
may happen to them if they are expelled from the country, as
is frequently rumoured here. I could not remain for the whole
hour they were to exchange views. Our press people are ex-
ceedingly well informed and absolutely trustworthy if one
warns them what is not to be reported.

At 1.30, our party sat down together and after we finished
luncheon, there were intimate conversations with Secretary
Phillips about the dangerous situation in Germany and the
possible attitudes of the United States. The English and the
French guests were the most solemn. So things go here always,

January /, igsS. Wednesday. Another troubled year begins.

At 5 o’clock today, we received all the American and Eng-
lish journalists here, also members of the Embassy staff, the
various attaches and other helpers, clerks and stenographers.
It was a party of eighty or ninety people and quite a strain
for me. Secretary Phillips was also with us for a half hour,
and two German editors who have seen much of the world and
are none too happy, though they showed no signs.

January 4, Saturday, This morning’s German papers report
on the front page the gist of Representative McReynold’s pro-
posal in Congress to give Roosevelt and the State Department
the right and the power to apply a boycott to any aggressor

NOVEMBER 26, 1935 TO FEBRUARY I, I936 3OI

nation when it starts a war, the time to do it being indicated
by events. This is almost exactly what I telegraphed and wrote
on Sunday, December 29. If Congress enacts this proposal the
United States is going to recover the power in international
affairs it lost in 1920, and Roosevelt may be able to do what
Wilson tried so earnestly to accomphsh in 1919.

The German papers all reported this proposition to their
readers but made no editorial comment. When I went to the
office at 9.30, a radio copy of Roosevelt’s speech of last night
to both houses of Congress came promptly to my desk. It is
a marvellous but very shrewd indictment of all dictatorships, of
all nations which persist in organizmg great armies and pre-
tending they have a right to annex smaller nations’ territory.
No German official can read this address without serious con-
cern. It tells the whole world about the suppression of freedom
here and the complete subordination of the people. I do not
think any paper will dare print any part of this address. Edi-
tors would be imprisoned, perhaps even be executed, if they
printed it verbatim. The speech seemed to me so timely and far-
seeing that I sent a cable of congratulations and a promise to
cable the effects or reactions here in a day or two.

In the afternoon, the German papers broke out in denuncia-
tions of Roosevelt’s proclamation to all the world, defending
themselves as a people who had been unjustly handled in
treaties. The Borsen ^eitung said Roosevelt is another Wood-
row Wilson trying to subordinate and betray the poor German
people who are not allowed to migrate to the United States.
The Angriff, Goebbels’ paper, attacked the President all over
the first page. The Berliner Tageblatt was not unfair, but it
did not speak favourably of this great effort to stop wars. No
paper which I have seen quoted a single paragraph verbatim.
They all drew conclusions aimed at inciting the Germans. In
my judgment, most Germans actually admire the President
even though they get only half-truth on any point. I shall see
many of them before long.

Realizing the importance of co-operation when the League
meets on January 20, I sent Martha to the Russian Embassy
with a brief note saying that I would like to see the Ambassa-
dor. My wife had told me it was unwise to see the Communist

302 NOVEMBER 26 , I935 TO FEBRUARY I, I936

representative Martha went to the Adlon Hotel, only a block
from the Embassy, dismissed the chauffeur and then walked
to the Embassy. The card was delivered. The Ambassador was
away. Martha told the Counsellor not to telephone me. The
Counsellor agreed but said, ‘^Tell your father to come at 7, any-
way.” So as I went back to my office at 4, I planned to drive
over near the proper place and then walk alone to the Am-
bassador’s office.

To my surprise when I returned to the house at 6 45, the
Russian Ambassador called on the phone and said he was at
home and would be glad to see me. After all my precautions,
the Secret Police thus had proof in their office of my visit to
the wielded Communist Ambassador. It was his blunder. I am
not sure he did not do it on purpose, in order that the Ger-
mans might learn of my supposed friendly relations.

So I went to see the Soviet leader here, who is so unwelcome
that one rarely sees him at an official luncheon or dinner. He
told me his government was ready to co-operate at once with
the League in sanctions against Italy. He also said Rumania
was even more ready for prompt action He said the French
Ambassador had made it plain to him that he feared a defeat
of Mussolini would mean the German annexation of Austria.

When we were through talking about the effects of Roose-
velt’s attitude, I said to him: I hope your government will
manage to stop propaganda in the United States where it does
no good. Let the two countries learn how to co-operate in com-
mercial matters and help keep the peace of the world. We are
a democracy and your people are Communist. Each people has
its right to its own method of government, but it must not in-
terfere with other peoples. He agreed and said he would do
all he could.

January 6 , Monday, Concerned about the German attitudes
towards the new sanctions question and the solid front England
and France are reported to be forming against Mussolini’s
crazy policy, I wrote a note in hand to the former Secretary of
Economics, Dr. Kurt Schmitt, and asked if he could stop at my
office on his way home. The note was taken by one of our mes-
senger boys to avoid exposing Schmitt to the Secret Police.

NOVEMBER 26, 1935 TO FEBRUARY I, I 936 303

We talked more than half an hour His reactions to the
American attitude about sanctions were less favourable than two
months ago when I saw him. He is still opposed to Mussolini’s
aggression but less so than before, indicating he thought the
emergence of Communism in Italy would ensue in the event of
Mussolini’s defeat or compulsory overthrow under the pres-
sure of England and France and even the Pope, who is not too
much opposed to dictatorships. When I raised the question of
Austrian relations with Germany he said there was no interest
here in the annexation of Austria now.

When I alluded to vast army expansion, he said : ‘^You know
all Germans have been taught militarism for fifty years and
all Prussian Germans for nearly 200 years. This has given the
people an attitude which no other people has. Every man has
served his term in the army and he thinks it an honour to have
his son serve and have his chance to become an officer. This
basic national attitude is what gives the Germans the appear-
ance of wishing war. We do not want war and this is one reason
nothing will be done about Austria, though everybody knows
Austria is German.”

On all three points Dr. Schmitt, considered a liberal oppo-
nent of the present regime, showed a modified attitude, milder
by far than when I last saw him. What has happened? He is
still in control of the German life insurance companies. My
guess is that he has been given considerable attention by Hitler
whom he said he had talked with before Christmas. He thinks
American attitudes are less important, though he is still an
advocate of German-English-United States co-operation. The
Italian dictatorship is more agreeable to him because Commun-
ism may arise there, and vast armament is not so dangerous
because Germany is naturally inclined towards big armies ! But
when I alluded to the Jewish difficulties, he flared up a
little and his references to the university situation were of
the same character as before : a big blunder on the part of
Germany.

As he went away I said : I sent a messenger with my note to
avoid possible embarrassment to you. He replied : 'T had no
hesitancy about calling you on the telephone because I have
no idea the police believe I give private information, which of

304 NOVEMBER 26 , 1935 TO FEBRUARY I, I 936

course I don’t. I shall talk about these things to Hitler when
I see him.”

January g. Thursday. Most Germans I see stress the peace
objectives of the Third Reich, including some men who are
entitled to real consideration. But this evening my wife and
I went to the great movie theatre, the UFA Palast, to see
the widely advertised Unset Wehrmacht (Our Defence Power)
film. For an hour a huge audience watched and applauded the
scenes : vast army fields with tanks and machine guns operating
and soldiers falling to the ground, all shooting and some killed ;
great parades of heavy trucks and big cannon ; air attacks with
hundreds of flying machines dropping bombs on a city. At
strategic moments Hitler, Goering and even Goebbels appeared
on the scene indicating their approval of all that was going on.
The audience applauded many times. I could hardly endure the
scene and what seemed to me the brutal performances.

If this means German devotion to peace, I cannot under-
stand this psychology. When Hitler speaks he stresses his peace
objectives, yet he and Goering parade on every possible occa-
sion in their elaborate uniforms, all the soldiers shouting “Heil
Hitler.” The generals of the Reichswehr seem less enthusiastic
but they never condemn war as a means of advancing Ger-
many’s interests.

January lo. Friday. At ii 39 I went in full dress to the
annual reception which Hitler gives to the diplomatic corps.
Practically every ambassador and minister was present, all
dressed in formal style, some with old-time hats and wonderful
gilt-finished clothes. It reminded me of the eighteenth century.
We waited nearly half an hour before the Chancellor arrived.
The Italian Ambassador was the only one who seemed embar-
rassed, the Soviet man simply keeping still unless approached
by others.

At 12 o’clock. Hitler, Von Neurath, Von Bulow, Lammers
and Meissner came into the reception-room where the diplo-
mats were all lined up according to rank, the red-dressed Papal
Nuncio at the head of the long circular line. The gay French
Ambassador stood next to him, I was third in line and the Eng-

NOVEMBER 26 , iQSS TO FEBRUARY I, I936 305

lish representative was next to me. The Nuncio read a mean-
ingless essay of congratulations in French which Hitler did not
understand any better than I did. The Chancellor replied in
briefer form, boasting a little of unemployment relief which
he had given the German people, not explaining that nearly
all the relief was due to the armament boom.

When Hitler came along the line he talked at some length
to the Nuncio about a certain Catholic cloister which he had
known and something of Church history. When he shook hands
with the Frenchman, he asked about the floods of the Seine in
Paris. Turning towards me, I said to him that I noticed that he
talked history with the Nuncio and that I supposed he read
history with real interest. He replied : ‘‘Yes, history is far better
for me than politics which wears me out ” Before he turned
to my English colleague, he asked: “When are you moving
into the Blucher Palace!” I had to say I did not know. He
showed considerable interest, referring to the unfortunate
effects of the subway which has caused the palace to show signs
of possible collapse of the walls. Then he went on down the
line and to my surprise talked with the Russian more freely
than with several others.

We were all free to leave at 12.30. While it is regarded as
necessary, this kind of show seems to me useless. The cars all
departed in order, everybody dropping a tip in the hands of
servants who were at the door.

January ii. Saturday, Three days ago I received a letter from
the University of Chicago offering Professor Otto Hoetzsch
proper compensation if he would lecture there next spring,
April and May, on European affairs between 1920 and 1930.
Hoetzsch was one of the best-known and most popular profes-
sors in Berlin. He was*so affected by his dismissal that he was
seriously ill for a month*. Having known him fairly well and
remembering our work together in Leipzig in 1899, I did what
I could to get the University of Chicago to extend this
invitation.

As soon as the offer came I sent word to him to call at the
office. He visited me on January 7 and I asked him if he could
accept and promised to forward his answer by cable to Chicago,

306 NOVEMBER 265 1935 TO FEBRUARY I, I 936

as requested. I also told him he would probably be asked to
repeat some of his lectures at the Universities of Michigan,
Illinois and Wisconsin. I was somewhat surprised at his hesi-
tancy to accept, knowing how much it meant to him. He went
away agreeing to give me an answer in three days.

This morning, January ii, he came in and promptly said
he could not accept the offer. He had talked with Dr. Dieckhoff
of the Foreign Office and learned that the German Government
disapproved of anyone’s lecturing in any country, perhaps also
at home, on the European situation following the World War.
They are not even willing for anyone to discuss the war. Dieck-
hoff made it plain that Hoetzsch might lose his pension if he
lectured on anything after 1914.

Hoetzsch tried to persuade me to ask Chicago again to give
him the opportunity of lecturing there next fall on European
history between 1856 and 1915. While I agreed to mention the
matter and I took a list of the subjects he proposed, I made no
promise. These subjects are better handled by Chicago his-
torians than here, and I am convinced now that no German
historian dares to tell the plain truth about his country. I cannot
really press the matter again.

Curious, these scholars, even the ablest, have no real concep-
tion of true history. They know the facts fairly, but cannot
recognize a single error on the part of their governments. The
idea of a great people not knowing important items of its past
and eminent professors not allowed to give their interpretations
of events is discouraging to me. Hoetzsch was a member of the
Reichstag here from 1920 to 1930, chairman of its Foreign
Relations Committee which worked out the Dawes-Young
arrangements. He has travelled all over Europe and the United
States and his experience' as a writer has been ample. Yet he
cannot lecture objectively on subjects he knows most about ! I
shook hands with him sadly when he left.

January 13, Monday. There was a great deal of comment in
the press today about the Goering parade, all ambassadors
except myself having been present, also the unhappy Crown
Prince and his wife. But Hitler and Goebbels were not there.

At 1 1 o’clock Max Sering came to talk about another inter-

NOVEMBER 26, I935 TO FEBRUARY I, I936 3O7

national agricultural conference to be held in England next
summer. He showed me a letter from Secretary Wallace. He
is a man of eighty-four or eighty-five but still vigorous. His
daughter married the son of the famous Admiral von Tirpitz.
Sermg is a Lutheran who is resentful of the Nazi church control
and reorganization. He is also an old-time royalist who prays
for Hohenzollern restoration. Yet he believes Hitler to be a
real statesman as contrasted with Goebbels and Goering.

When he said : ‘^Germany does not want war again/’ I could
not help mentioning the film we saw on the 9th at the UFA
Palast. I saw that he, like most Germans, does not grasp the
military and aggressive attitudes behind such shows and the
sale of millions of little bombs and tanks to children as Christ-
mas presents. I did not wish to add to his unhappiness so we
discussed his agricultural problems as he appraises them. He
will undoubtedly have something worth while to say if he goes
to the conference, half of the delegates coming from the United
States. If the educated German people only understood their
own history !

January 16. Thursday, I was at a dinner given in honour of
R. L. Hague of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey
which ship^s great quantities of oil to Hamburg in return for
15,000-ton tank ships. The president of the German shipbuild-
ing company in Hamburg which makes the tankers said they
employed 1,000 men as a consequence of the Standard Oil
contract. He also said he made similar ships for England and
that all of them are so built that they can be readily converted
into warships. However, the Hamburg business man made it
perfectly plain that he disliked the Hitler regime, though not
Hitler so much. He said his children in the Hamburg school
had to learn great falsehoods at the command of Nazi teachers,
compelled by Rosenberg to teach nonsense.

January ly, Friday. About noon today a staff member sent
down a detailed telegram which he wished I would sign for the
code men to get off. It was more than twice as long as it should
have been, and about the fifth time since his arrival here that
he has sent long, detailed and even unimportant cables, the

308 NOVEMBER 26, I935 TO FEBRUARY I, I936

cost of some of them being over $ioo. I had shown him several
times how to abbreviate them and save half the cost. He had
yielded, but had sometimes failed to do what he had promised.
So I rewrote this one with omission of all unessential sentences,
making it only half as long as his original. I sent it back to him
to be sent as my telegram duly signed. I went away for my
usual noonday walk.

When I returned to the office in the afternoon, my secretary
reported that the man in question had been angry and com-
plaining. But I have made up my mind to write telegrams
myself, if he cannot learn how to write.

This illustrates the spirit of the diplomatic service people.
They are graduates of Harvard, Princeton and one or two
other universities. Being the sons of rich men, hardly one in
ten has ever learned anything about clear-cut, succinct writing,
even less about history. They think it perfectly right to load
off $1,000 a month on their government, and at the same time
they think they are free to come to their offices at lo or ii
o’clock each morning, remain two hours, clerks doing their
work, and then go away to some luncheon and remain until 4
o’clock. One or two more hours in the office and then they feel
free to go to a card party or a little later to a dinner where
they remain until 12 or i o’clock. I have tried to correct all
this, set definite hours for office work and “urge a more regu-
lated social life. Most of the staff members have become co-
operative, though I believe they do not regard the Embassy
here as too serious a business.

Although the present staff members have learned painfully
to come promptly each morning and have tried to write good
telegrams, they carry a society burden almost impossible for
anyone who hopes to keep his health.

January 18. Saturday. A journalist of the Hearst press in the
United States came in for a talk this afternoon. I had seen him
before and asked him to report any interview he migh t get
TOth high German officials, as far as he felt free to do so. He
is not exactly a pro-Nazi journalist though he is a good Hearst-
ite. So he reported today he had seen Von Ribbentrop, the
diplomatic specialist of Hitler who negotiated the English-

NOVEMBER 26, 1935 TO FEBRUARY I, I936 3O9

German naval pact of last June, Von Ribbentrop is clever but
most unwelcome to Von Neurath and Von Bulow
He saidj in his interview : ^^Germany has an understanding
with Mussolini; the Ethiopian war will end in his favour; then
Germany and Italy will demand restoration of German pre-
war colonies.’’ He showed maps of all the German colonies and
tried to prove them rich in mineral and other raw materials.
“It really means war if the League of Nations does not restore
German colonies/’ the Hearst man said. I said : No, not so soon.
Germany is not ready for war, but will be in two years.

I told him of German-Japanese relations since I have been
in Berlin, and my feeling that there is an unwritten treaty
under which the two countries will make war upon Russia at
the strategic time. I continued : Now you say there is a pact
between Germany and Italy. That means what I have prophe-
sied for more than a year : a dictatorial front in Europe which
may give the world much trouble.

January 21. Tuesday. I talked with Dr. Schacht half an hour
this morning. He spent two weeks in Italy about Christmas
time. He then went to Basle for the International Bank con-
ference where he is one of the directors. I had hardly taken
seat opposite him at his desk in the palatial Reichsbank before
he referred to the Senate investigation of munitions and finance
which Senator Nye has managed. Schacht wanted to know if I
thought Wilson had entered the World War for financial and
trade advantage. I replied in the negative, giving Wilson’s
statement to me August 15, 1916, about his attitude which was
to intervene in case it became clear that the Berlin military
dictators were about to dominate all Europe.

Schacht avoided a reply, except to say that he did not believe
Wilson was pulled into the war by the New York bankers.^ ^

I then asked about German-Italian relations. He said, “You
know Hitler and Mussolini had a long conference at Venice in
1934, but the two leaders agreed about nothing. They disliked
each other so much. Now, however, there is a better feeling.
Both countries must have colonial possessions, and while we
have no alliance there is a rapprochement.”

I answered i Restoration of colonial possessions to Germany

310 NOVEMBER 26, 1935 FEBRUARY I, I 936

would be right and fair, but you know colonies no longer yield
profits. We have lost immensely on every colony we took from
Spain in 1898. He replied, “But your people would not go to
those possessions,’’ and I added that modern conditions are
such that unemployed nowhere, except in Japan, will migrate.
He let the subject drop. But I am sure Germany means to make
an issue of colonial restoration soon. Hitler says, “We will not
go to war for colonies,” but he will probably press the matter
in such a way as to incite war.

Then Schacht referred to German economic and financial
conditions. He indicated that American claimants for interest
on bonds are soon to come to see him about payments due
April I. I said; Well, our latest telegram, on January 20 ,
showed that your income has improved a lot the last few
months. He was interested and asked if he could see parts of
my telegram to the Secretary of the Treasury. I replied that
I might tell him something of what we reported on the German
financial situation. Then he said he had paid interest on bonds
last autumn hoping to get better commercial treaty arrange-
ments with the United States, but that there had been no
improvement.

I replied ; There are so many other matters that affect public
opinion with us that a really low tariff treaty would hardly pass
the Senate if negotiated. You know what these difficulties are.
If everybody here understood things and made public state-
ments similar to yours, things would go much better. The
United States does not like bilateral agreements. What Secre-
tary Hull wants is lower barriers everywhere, and I think that
would everywhere raise standards of living. He halfway as-
sented, but made it plain that no change of the present autarchy
policy and no religious freedom with fair treatment of the
Jews are possible at present. I bade him good-bye and best
wishes, aware that our half hour’s talk had only cleared the
atmosphere a little, not given evidence of any better relations
between the countries.

January 23. Thursday, Our Commercial Attache brought Dr.
Engelbrecht, chairman of the Vacuum Oil Company in Ham-
burg, to see me. Engelbrecht repeated what he had said a year

NOVEMBER 26, 1935 FEBRUARY I, I 936 3 II

ago : “The Standard Oil Company of New York, the parent
company of the Vacuum, has spent 10,000,000 marks in Ger-
many trying to find oil resources and building a great refinery
near the Hamburg harbour ” Engelbrecht is still boring wells
and finding a good deal of crude oil in the Hanover region,
but he has no hope of great deposits. He hopes Dr. Schacht
will subsidize his company as he does some German companies
that have found no crude oil. The Vacuum spends all its earn-
ings here, employs 1,000 men and never sends any of its money
home. I could give him no encouragement, for the German
Government is hardly willing to do anything for an outsider,
even if he does spend millions here. Mr. Miller was of the
same opinion.

January 24. Friday, John Foster Dulles, who writes for the
American magazine about European affairs but who is also
connected with a large banking business in New York, reported
his difficulties in financial matters here.

He said : “My sister lives here. She is an enthusiastic Hitler-
ite, and anxious to show me the German attitude for peace. So
we went this afternoon to the movie, Unser Wehrmacht (Our
Defence Power), which she said was proof of the German
desire for peace. I sat through the show, but the war planes,
big guns, pictures of violent attacks upon cities and the en-
thusiastic attitudes of Hitler, Goering and Goebbels, as they
stood looking at the devastating work, took from my mind
all thought of peace as an object of the show.” His impressions
were the same as mine two weeks ago when I witnessed
the same demonstration of Germany at war. Dulles said he
could not understand his sister’s attitude, and added that
such a display in the United States would be hissed off the
screen.

Dulles said he had served in the State Department with Sec-’
retary Lansing when Wilson was President and that he was
indignant at the charges of the Senate Committee that Wilson
entered the World War to make money for the United States.
He recognized the bankers’ role and attitude during 1915"^
but denied that the President had any contacts with the Mor-
gans. This accords with my information, though I am inclined

312 NOVEMBER 26, I935 TO FEBRUARY I, I936

to the belief that Lansing was not altogether free from strong
banking influences.

Jammy 2j. Saturdcy. Louis Lochner reports that at the
meeting of the Foreign Press Association this morning he was
re-elected by a vote of 59 out of a total of 65, six members not
voting. This gives him a status which may prevent Dr. Goeb-
bels from ordering his departure from the country next autumn
because of too free reports of conditions and troubles here. Last
summer there was serious danger of this. When the Olympic
Games are over, there are apt to be sharper attacks. I con-
gratulated him on his re-election and hoped no trouble would
occur.

January 30. Thursday. Today is regarded by the Hitler re-
gime as a German July 4. I had accepted an invitation to hear
Hitler and Goebbels speak at 11.30. But the weather was bad
and I had learned that the affair was an outdoor show, with
30,000 S.A. soldiers marching past the Fuehrer. The weather
made it risky for me to attend and I wrote a note declining.

I now understand that the people and soldiers did not shout
and hurrah as they have formerly done. Is there a declining
popularity? One often hears this, but I doubt whether Hitler
has lost many followers. Absolutism denies anybody a chance
to protest or criticize ; all important organizations in Germany
axe official, the churches alone excepted ; and these can do noth-
ing. At night there was an amazing torch-light procession
through the Wilhelmstrasse, once more in honour of the Fuehrer.

Jammy 31. Friday. There are many rumours of German un-
easiness about a possible solid front of England, France, Italy
and all the Balkan states against further German armament
and against any demand by Hitler for a restoration of German
colonies. For this reason I called at noon today on the Czecho-
slovak Minister, just returned from Prague where he had been
for a week.

He said : “Austria is uneasy lest a Nazi drive be made for the
overthrow of the regime there. Czechoslovakia is also tense
and listening to Austrian Catholic leaders who are urging close

NOVEMBER 26, 1935 FEBRUARY I, I 936 3 I 3

cO"Operation between the two countries. England is supporting
Austria in concert with France and there is trouble in Hungary
where the English have ceased buying fats and thus upset the
economic life very much. .All the states of the Balkan zone are
disposed to co-operate in the League of Nations against Italy,
later against Germany if she becomes aggressive towards her
small neighbours.

He said, however, that he had no definite information as to
how far League action was to go. He would see the French
Ambassador in a day or two and ascertain whether there is any
decisive policy, especially whether England and France were
about to announce approval of the pact with Russia against any
aggressor, particularly Germany or Japan. He promised to let
me know if there were definite moves. The one thing Germany
opposes is the Russian pact for keeping the peace

At 4.30 Major Archibald Church of Bristol, England, long-
time visitor and observer here, dropped in. He was a leader in
the Labour Government of MacDonald and had been a private
secretary to Bruening, He talked an hour and a half about the
English situation, the League, Italy and especially Germany.
He gave me the name of a prominent Cabinet member here
between 1920 and 1933 who let him know how much money
had been secretly used for armaments and the training of
soldiers, beyond the treaty allowance. Stresemann and Bruening,
though claiming to be sincerely co-operative with England and
France, he said, granted these allowances out of a huge secret
fund voted by the Reichstag. So, he said, there were far more
trained soldiers in 1933 than the Reichswehr acknowledged.

Church impressed me as exceedingly well informed about
internal matters here. According to reports, he slipped Bruening
out of the country, June 30, 1934, when the former Chancellor
was in danger of being killed, and several others he also helped
out in clever ways.

February j. Saturday. We went with James H. Hyde to the
great indoor horse-jumping contest, with German, Italian,
Polish and Japanese horses in the show. It was quite good.
After the horse-jumping, there was an amazing army demon-
stration : a cavalry parade (not bad). Black Shirt soldiers march-

314 NOVEMBER 26, 1935 TO FEBRUARY I, I 936

ing, then cannon wagons pulled around for us all to see, with
tank and machine-gun operations. It was intended as a sham
battle, the machine guns being fired by soldiers prostrate on
the ground.

The vast audience, 20,000 perhaps, applauded, and Hitler
and Goering gave salutes. No one could fail to see that the
Nazi spirit is fundamentally war-like. Ambassadors of other
countries, also many military and naval attaches, were witnesses
to this demonstration.

What Europe is to do with 68,000,000 people bent upon
another war I cannot guess. If all states combine and remain
armed to the teeth, the struggle may be delayed, but not actu-
ally avoided. Not to form a solid front will mean annexations
east, west and north, and 90,000,000 people in the German
Reich. The French and English peoples have become over-
whelmingly pacifist and the Germans know this. Pacifism is
the attitude of the United States also, but pacifism will mean
a great war and the subordination of all Europe to Germany
if the pacifist peoples do not act courageously at this critical
moment in their history.

IX

February j, ig^6 to July 2g^ igg6

February 5. Wednesday. Suppose the Hohenzollerns were
restored, would they avoid another great war? The German
people have so long submitted to militarism and the Hohen-
zollerns have so long advocated aggression east, north and west,
that they might fall again into this antiquated form of national
behaviour.

Prince Louis Ferdinand was one of the guests at a party of
Martha’s tonight. He asked to talk to me for a moment. I told
him what the Franco-Russian entente, with the hope of a
united Balkan zone, was intended for. He was depressed be-
cause he saw it meant German encirclement and perhaps an-
other war. He asked me what I thought was the way out for
Germany. I said to him quite confidentially, though I suspect
he will tell his father, that the liberal people of Germany
would have to have a more progressive government, a parlia-
ment freely elected, freedom of religion, a let-up on the Jews
and freedom of the press. He agreed. Certainly " Louis Fer-
dinand himself would favour this

February 12. Wednesday This morning Ambassador Bullitt,
on his way to Russia, came to see me, reporting the optimistic
attitude of the President, also greetings from Secretary Hull
and Judge Moore. Bullit said : ‘‘Pennsylvania will be a crucial
state in next November’s election, but m Philadelphia the old
Republican group no longer rules. The Irish and the Jews are
a unit for Roosevelt and they are apt to carry the city.”

This may be true. It is a curious combination in our country.
Bullitt seems to think he will have to go back in late summer
to campaign for the President, perhaps become an intimate
adviser to take the place of poor Howe who is about to die. I
doubt if these hopes will be realized.

Bullitt sounds like an emotional friend of the President but

3 i 6 FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 29, I936

not one whose judgment can be relied on. He is ambitious for
promotion to high position but does not seem to me to appraise
situations too well. For example, this morning he condemned
sharply the co-operation between England, France and the
Balkan states in the hope of bringing Russia into a moderate
policy and keeping the peace of Europe. He said Germany
would capture Austria and Czechoslovakia in two weeks’ time
and quickly bring all Europe under her control.

I questioned: Do you think this would be good for the
United States and England? He cared “not a damn” for Eng-
land and reported that both Lord Lothian and Lloyd George
are against the English, French, Russian co-operation with the
Balkan entente. He added that Lothian preferred to let Ger-
many go on her conquering way towards European domination
rather than to impose limitation upon Germany by his country.
While I said little, I did add that the Lothian policy would
mean the decline of England to a position like that of Holland.
To me it would be a calamity for a people which has so long
led in culture and democratic attitudes to lose its position and
power.

Then Bullitt said that before he sailed last December for
Washington he knew that England had declined a great loan
to Russia. Learning that France was about to loan her old
Russian ally of 1914 one billion francs, it is reported that
Bullitt went to a strategic person in the French Government
and convinced him that Russia would never repay the loan.
Thus he had defeated the Russian negotiations. I was not sure
myself whether the Russians would pay, but it seemed unusual
for an American Ambassador to Russia to defeat Russo-French
negotiations,

I shall not speak of this to anyone here, but it seemed to me
an unwise thing to do. Whether the story is altogether correct
or not, it is certain that no loan was made. While I doubt the
wisdom of any nation or great bank making a big loan to Ger-
many, I would certainly jiot prevent negotiations, if England
or Holland, for instance, were to lend money to Germany. My
position here would not allow it, according to my philosophy.

Sir Eric Phipps reported what he could upon English atti-
tudes. He was more outspoken than he had been in a year:

FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 20 , I936 317

'^England has abandoned her disarmament policy of the last
fourteen years. She will spend nearly 3^300,0005000 a year now
in order to have a greater army, a bigger navy and ample air
defence. This is a sad move, but we have argued with Germany
since last February to agree to disarmament proposals. The
Fuehrer has always said ‘No’ to me. We shall not bother the
Germans again ; but after the French elections next April, we
shall unite with France and other European members of the
League of Nations and say to the Germans, ‘You can agree now
to an international limitation of armaments or else we shall all,
including Russia, unite to defend any state that is attacked.’
Russia,” he added, “is now emerging into a more rational state
and we can afford to co-operate with her to keep the peace. If
we do not succeed in persuading Germany, there will be war in
a few years and Europe, including Germany, will collapse.”

He then told me that the French Ambassador had recently
had Goering to dinner and that, when there was talk of the
possibility of Hitler’s retiring or his health failing, Goering
put his fat hands upon his chest and said : “I am to succeed the
Fuehrer.” This was so disturbing to the Frenchman that he
went to Phipps and indicated his anxiety.

Goering is the one member of the triumvirate here who fre-
quently makes challenging speeches on the French and Polish
borders. I think Goering is almost a complete Mussolini and
ready to risk war at any time. This story only confirmed me in
the view that the encirclement programme, if supported by all
the border states east and west of Germany, and by England,
France and Russia, is about the only promise of peace there is
in Europe.

I came- home to luncheon rather more troubled than usual,
the two conversations having revealed once more the angles of
the dilemma here. Poor German people !

February ig, Wednesday, Today the newspapers reported
that the Swiss Government has forbidden all Nazi organiza-
tions. This reveals once more the sad state of things in this
famous country. A week ago a Nazi propagandist in Switzer-
land, named Gustloff, was murdered by a German Jew who
had become a subject of Yugoslavia. Gustloff had troubled the

3 i 8 FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 29, I936

Swiss people for several years and their Minister here had
more than once protested in vain, as I did in 1934 against
similar propaganda in the United States. When the murder
was known here, all German flags were put at half mast. Not
even Von Hmdenburg’s death was treated with more public
attention. The dead man was brought slowly through Germany
to his burial place in Mecklenburg. Hitler made an amazingly
aggressive attack on all Jews. Other addresses were made in
Hamburg and in other cities, tens of thousands of people listen-
ing, compelled to be present. Secretary Dieckhoff was ordered
to represent the German Foreign Office where Hitler spoke.

Today’s papers are full of attacks upon the Swiss, claiming
that Nazi organizations abroad ought to be allowed to function,
forgetting that Hitler published an order to the German Con-
sulates m the United States late in December that at the end
of that month all Nazi organizations must be dissolved, even
in our country where there are millions of Germans. Now
Switzerland is denounced throughout the country for doing
what he said he had ordered in America.

In addition to regular press attacks there was passed out to
the press from Goebbels’ office a sarcastic statement that the
Swiss would probably build a monument to honour the mur-
derer of Gustloff. They forget that the German Nazi leaders
built a monument to the murderers of Rathenau, the greatest of
ministers here since the war, and that each year flowers are laid
about the monument to the murderers. How can the press
complain now if the Swiss newspapers call attention to the
German monument to a murderer?

February 20, Thursday. A New York Times man called this
morning to report on a little trouble Birchall got into on ac-
count of his story of Sir Eric Phipps’ interview with Hitler on
December 13. His report corresponds with what I had learned
from different sources. It indicated that Hitler had gesticulated
rather violently and denounced the Russians as enemies whom
he must be ready to fight; that he had no idea of limiting arms
of any kind and would enter into no international conference
on the subjects of aircraft or warships When this was reprinted
from the Times account in the London Daily Telegraphy the

FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 29, I936 319

German Foreign Office, Dieckhoff and others, informed the
Times people here that Birchall must not return to Germany,
that the police were instructed to keep him out.

Somehow, Birchall is in Berlin and had a long talk with
Dieckhoff yesterday. As yet no one knows what is to be done.
However, Birchall reported so favourably the German courtesy
and treatment of the Olympic Games participants in Germany
during the last two weeks that he was quoted a few days ago
in the German press. Evidently Birchall made his peace, though
I believe his story of the Hitler attitude of December 13 was
correct. Anyway he is here. The Times man said : ‘T only wish
I could leave this country. Everything here is in such a condi-
tion and all of us newspaper people kept in such a state of mind
that life is miserable.” But the American press authorities at
home are so bent upon keeping their cleverest reporters here
that I think these people will remain. The Olympic Games
will occur in the summer and they involve the expenditure of
millions of dollars by foreigners in Germany, one of the greatest
hopes of Dr. Schacht.

Later in the day the finance expert of our staff brought me a
typed German report quoting me as saying that on account of
Hitler’s illness, it had been decided that Goering, General von
Blomberg and Hess will be the next German triumvirate. The
man who sent this circular is an intimate of finance circles here
and receives pay for notices of this sort.

I have telegraphed to Washington that rumours here over
many weeks indicate that Hitler’s throat is in bad condition,
supposed to be cancer, and that the generals of the army about
January i, 1936, had held a meeting and agreed to this tri-
umvirate in the order given. The Czech Minister told me this.
I also had it from another official source. My telegram did not
say it was a fact, only that the above reports had come to me.

Now, how does this story get back to Germany? It is possible
that the British Ambassador mentioned it as coming from me,
but he told me first about Goering’s being designated as the
coming Fuehrer, a few days ago. I then told him the other part
of the story. It is possible once more that somebody in the State
Department let this story out and that it was cabled over here.
It may be true that somebody in Paris reported the contents

320 FEBRUARY 5 , I936 TO JULY 29, I936

of the telegram, as a copy was sent there. It is not an agreeable
matter.

February 25. Tuesday, I lunched with Oechsner and Roy
Howard, head of the United Press, who has been around the
world. Howard is to see Hitler tomorrow at 12.30. He was not
a little pleased at the prospect, though I told him he need not
expect much. I did not say that I would not see Hitler or Goer-
ing at any time on my own volition. However, newspaper
people feel it to be a duty to see Hitler and Mussolini when in
Berlin and Rome.

February 27, Thursday. Oechsner came to report what Hitler
had said yesterday to Howard and himself. They noticed that
the Chancellor was very much troubled about something, but
they had not observed that the armed guards about the palace
were twice as numerous as hitherto. This Mr. Flack of the Em-
bassy had noticed yesterday as he came from the Foreign Office.
The reason was, he thought, the recent reports of the murderous
putsch in Tokyo when three high officials were killed by army
officers. There was cause for some concern when everybody
knows there is much unhappiness in Germany. The possibility
always exists of another ‘June 30.^’

February 28. Friday. I received a report today from Cologne
of a long conversation with Fritz Thyssen, the greatest manu-
facturer of arms after the Krupps. Thyssen said he had given
a great part of his fortune to help Hitler win his long struggle
for his dictatorship. He said he was troubled about the present
situation and added that another June 30 purge was necessary
to save Hitler’s regime. He did not name the persons involved.
He was fearful that the radical wing of the Nazi Party was be-
coming almost Communist. However, he condemned severely
the persecution of Catholics and Protestants which has been
going on for two years.

I guess that his aim is to have Goebbels, Rosenberg, Darre
and the labour chiefs dismissed. There have been many rumours
in Berlin about a possible shooting, and people who are sup-
posed to know a good deal think Goering is the man who will

FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 29, I936 32I

once more rid the country of people he does not like. One story
is that he will put Hitler out of the way and himself become the
dictator.

Of the arrests already made. Catholics have been among the
principal victims : reports say 200, preachers and others, perhaps
half of them later released, though one can never know the
facts. One thing the Nazis insist upon is the absolute control
of all the young people, their religious instruction and general
education, under the same methods applied now for nearly
twenty years by the Communists of Russia.

February 29. Saturday. At 12.30 I had a long talk with Secre-
tary von Neurath, entirely unofficial. He was more frank with
me than on any previous occasion. I suspect that serious disputes
have been going on between his wing of the government and
that dominated by Goering. He did not acknowledge such dis-
putes, but when I asked him about the Franco-Soviet pact which
has been denounced so often in the German press, he said that
the plan of the French and the Russians really was not belliger-
ent, that the Communist system was not equal to a war outside
of Russian boundaries. They might fight bravely if attacked at
home but they could not fight an offensive war, although they
did have a vast army.

That was my idea, too, for I do not see how 170,000,000
people can be too submissive to a Party government with hardly
more than two million Party members. I did not say so, but I
believe Germany’s 68,000,000 would not offer complete unity
if called upon to invade Belgium again, or Holland.

Then I reported to the Secretary that most of the ministers
from the Balkan states here had repeatedly said to me since the
second summer of my residence in Berlin that the independence
of those states could be guaranteed only through the formation
of a confederation for defence and peace. I asked him : Would
you consider such a union as a menace to Germany? He re-
plied: "‘No, so long as neither France nor Russia nor Italy
dominates it.”

This raised the question of German ‘‘encirclement,” so much
talked of since universal military service began in March, 1935.
I said “encirclement,” or alliances, is the natural consequence

L

322 FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 29, I936

of the declining power and influence of the League of Nations
from which Germany has withdrawn. If this process goes on wc
shall have the condition of 1914 again. In fact we do have a
similar situation, all states arming to the limit with France,
England, Russia on one side, and Italy, Germany and Japan
on the other, but this I did not stress directly with Von Neurath.
He agreed that the danger is acute.

I said the Balkan states, if united, would be a strong guaran-
tee of peace. I urged : Why not restore the League and settle
boundary problems through conferences? He surprised me by
saying : “We are contemplating a return to the League on the
condition that the Western powers agree to restore our colonies,
allow us to re-enter, with our army, the demilitarized zone on
the Rhine, and make certain concessions as to naval parity.’’ He
insisted that colonies must be restored, that the Rhine zone
might possibly await diplomatic negotiations, that the Franco-
Russian pact was not serious and that England had received
German assent to naval arrangements about to be made in
London.

After some remarks about the folly of militarism and war, I
asked him if Germany were about to make a special alliance
with Japan, which had been so often rumoured recently. He
evaded this with, “We might as well commit suicide as enter
another war,” but insisted that there was no sort of entente be-
tween Germany and Italy, also that Germany would not be
drawn into a war with Russia even if Japan did attack the
Soviet Union. So I got an answer to an important query with-
out direct question.

I agree with hitn that Italy and Germany are not apt to co-
operate unless both find themselves in a defensive position out-
side the League. But I cannot avoid the belief that Germany
would support Japan against Russia if it came to war. There is
much evidence here that Germany and Japan are in some way
tied up Both Von Neurath and Schacht have said things which
lead to that conclusion.

As I came away. Von Neurath emphasized the fact that he
was arguing things out with Hitler. He insisted that the
Fuehrer showed signs of compromise, especially about return-
ing to Geneva. This surprised me a little.

FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 20 , I936 323

March 5, Thursday. There is considerable uneasiness these
days. The Minister from Czechoslovakia came in this afternoon
to talk of the difficulties of his country. I told him in confidence
that Von Neurath had agreed with me that the union of the
Balkan states for mutual defence and co-operation would not
be an affront to Germany as long as no outside country was a
party to it This contradicted what he had heard was the F oreign
Office attitude. I cannot always be quite sure that Von Neurath
speaks the exact truth to me. However, I believe what he told
me last Saturday was quite sincere.

Then I added to my Czech friend : In view of the dangerous
position of all smaller states bordering Germany, if I were an
official of the Balkan zone, I would do my utmost to bring about
such a union, not a strict union, like ours in the United States,
but a confederation for mutual aid, economic and political He
agreed with me, but indicated the great difficulties: Austria
wants to restore the Hapsburgs . Yugoslavia is very hostile to
that idea ; Hungary is most hostile to Czechoslovakia ; and Bul-
garia is not yet ready to do anything.

I replied * If the Balkan populations of more than 80,000,000
do not find a way to unite, your independence will be lost. Im-
perialism is too strong in Germany, as you know. We parted,
both in agreement but doubtful that peoples of Europe know
how to co-operate. He said he was leaving that evening for
Prague where he was to be the guest of President Benes.

March 6 Friday. The story is going around that Hitler is
calling the Reichstag together for March 13, the day after the
announced French ratification of the agreement with Ru'ssia.
The idea is that Hitler will issue some violent reply. What-
ever IS planned, there is considerable anxiety here, with meet-
ings of the dictator and his associates supposed to be held
frequently.

At 5 30 Mr. Gie, Minister from South Africa, called to report
what he had learned during the League Commission session
this week. He said Foreign Secretary Eden of England had
insisted on oil sanctions against the Italians, but that the
French Foreign Secretary, Flandin, had opposed sanctions
almost as ster]gLly as Laval had done last December. It surprised

324 FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 29, I936

and angered Eden. The French were still bound, as they
thought, by their pact of January, 1935, which guaranteed Italy
as much of Ethiopia as she wished. It was a repetition of the
blunder of December, 1935, one more surrender to dictator
Mussolini with 6,000 war planes ready to attack the British
fleet in the Mediterranean Sea

Mr. Gie was quite depressed to report Eden’s defeat and
England’s danger of losing her position in Egypt. While all
these powers have done things similar to Italy’s conquest of
poor Ethiopia, it would seem that the League could find a way
to stop such performances. Germany looks on and wonders
when she will be able to seize weaker peoples.

When I told Gie confidentially that Germany was consider-
ing a return to the League on condition that her colonies of
1914 be restored, he said: “That was discussed between Eden
and myself and he said England would agree to the granting
of colonies to Germany only as mandates, so as to avoid arming
the natives, as France has done in Morocco.” He talked a little
of the tense attitude here, but neither of us could guess what
would be done when the Reichstag was called.

March 7. Saturday. When I reached my office at 9 30 Coun-
sellor Mayer reported that he must go at once to the Foreign
Office to receive information which Dr. Dieckhoff had been
asked to give us. Already the news had come that Hitler was
to address the Reichstag assembly today at 12 o’clock! When
Mayer returned at 1 1 o’clock, he brought a summary of Hitler’s
propositions: he was sending some 30,000 troops into the
demilitarized zone of the Rhineland ; he proposed an agreement
with France and Belgium to demilitarize both sides of the
Rhine, also the Dutch border on the German side ; he would
denounce the Locarno pact between Germany, France, Italy
and England because France was signing a pact with Russia;
he would return to the League of Nations and be ready to limit
aircraft with Western powers, and would demand the restora-
tion of German colonies.

DieckhofFf hoped we would give this document to the Ameri-
can press people here so they would cable at once to the United
States what Hitler was doing and saying before the Reichstag.

FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 29, I936 325

We called the newspaper offices and gave them the information
which was immediately sent across the Atlantic.

Mayer and I then went to the Kroll Theatre near the old
Reichstag building to hear what was to be said. The hall was
crowded. On the main floor were the members of the Reichstag,
all in Nazi uniforms, men named by Hitler and paid by the
government just as if they were actually serving as legislators.
They had been called together on short notice and they were
to vote unanimously for whatever Hitler proposed. Of course it
was ridiculous, but the assembled men did not show any sighs
of a sense of humour.

The space reserved for the diplomats was fairly filled, though
the French, the English, the Russian and the Polish Ambassa-
dors were absent. At least the English and French had been in-
formed what was coming, and they remained away on purpose.
I sat next to the Turk, and next to him sat the Italian.

When Hitler rose to speak there was enormous applause, the
diplomats all silent as is usual here. Madame von Neurath sat
next to the Italian and she applauded, though I knew she was
insincere in doing so. To the rear of Hitler sat Goering who
looked very proud. To the right sat Lammers, one of his chief
secretaries, in uniform ; on the left sat Frank, the head of the
Nazi Bar Association. The Cabinet members were further to
the right; Von Neurath, Gurtner, Minister of Justice, and
Goebbels, who read the pages of a copy of Hitler’s speech and
turned the leaves just as Hitler himself turned his pages. Be-
hind Von Neurath sat Dr. Schacht with other members of the
Cabinet to his right. Hundreds of press people were in the gal-
lery. It was designed as a great occasion, Hitler speaking over
the radio to all Germany and the world.

The speech lasted an hour and a half. It enumerated the
points already sent to us and dwelt at length upon the vicious-
ness of the Franco-Russian pact and also on the idea that Ger-
man culture has been greatly improved and advanced since
1933 -

It seemed to me very inconsistent to talk about Wilson’s
Fourteen Points and world peace and then devote fifteen min-
utes to a denunciation of the Franco-Russian peace pact, its one
purpose being proclaimed to be simply defence against an

326 FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 29, I936

attack At the same time Czechoslovakia was similarly de-
nounced Anyone knows that little country of 14,000,000 people
would never attack Germany. The long praise of Nazi culture
was of course absurd, though it may be that Hitler is still fanatic
enough to think Nazism is culture The other points of the ad-
dress were cleverly designed to weaken the relations between
England and France It seemed to me Germany and Italy were
acting in common. If that is true, it will mean trouble for
France.

•At I 40 I left the hall, Hitler having been escorted away by
hundreds of armed soldiers. He is never without a vast guard.
As I came out of the room, the Dutch Minister showed much
indignation. He said to me: ‘The Russian and Czechoslovak
representatives here may consider resigning and I think the
French Ambassador will go to Paris tonight.’’ I had not thought
this would happen, but I agreed with him that the denuncia-
tions he alluded to were certainly belligerent.

Mr. Mayer who did not understand German very well was
enthusiastic. He had never seen such enthusiasm and he thought
Hitler’s oratory was marvellous. I indicated certain doubts but
agreed the address was cleverly planned and thought it another
strategic moment to call a national election. The reoccupation
of the Rhine country and the humiliation of France are likely
to give Hitler’s candidates for the new Reichstag overwhelm-
ing support Since Hitler nominates one candidate for each
district and allows no other nomination, there is no choice for
voters They may cast blank ballots or not vote at all, but they
risk imprisonment by doing so.

It was high time for luncheon. The rest of the day was spent
in the office where rumours from anxious Paris and London were
reported. One crisis after another has been the rule here since
our arrival m July, 1933.

March g, Monday, My friend, Limburg-Stirum, called about
12 o’clock He is a democratic aristocrat, member of a 400-year-
old Dutch family, and has been in Berlin for ten or twelve
years. His own government is very doubtful what to do in case
France succeeds in applying sanctions to Germany on account
of the march into the Rhine and the German denunciation of

FEBRUARY 5 , I936 TO JULY 29 , I936 327

the Locarno Treaty. The economic life of the Netherlands de-
pends very much on exports to Germany. Also Germany owes
the Dutch people a great deal of money.

But the Minister’s personal opinion is bitterly opposed to the
Hitler policy which he says is aimed at annexations in the
Balkan and Baltic zones. In case the Rhineland is made neutral
as Hitler suggests — a stretch of country from Basle, Switzer-
land, to northern Holland thirty miles wide on each side of the
historic river — there can be no interference from the French
side when Germany annexes Czechoslovakia, Austria, Lithuania
or Esthonia. The Minister thinks that is the scheme and that
Holland too is considered as ripe for annexation. I am inclined
to agree. Certainly the vast preparations here and the unprece-
dented propaganda for annexations of countries where Germans
live would indicate this.

March lo. Tuesday. Baron Albert Dufour von Feronce, de-
scendant of French Huguenots who have lived here since the
end of the seventeenth century, came apparently to persuade me
that Hitler means no aggression, that the French-Soviet pact
was contrary to the Locarno Treaty and that the march of
36,000 troops into the Rhineland Was entirely justified. He was
formerly German Minister to Yugoslavia, was long in the
diplomatic service and is now on a pension He revealed the
enthusiasm almost of a Nazi Party chief, though he is supposed
to be in opposition to the Hitler regime. He was enthusiastic
about what he calls German honour and the right to violate a
treaty in order to militarize the area demilitarized in 1919. He
represents, as I believe, 90 per cent of Germany although it is
the general supposition that no more than 40 per cent of the
population is actually Nazi in faith This shows how clever
Hitler was in planning his stroke of March 7.

March 12. Thursday On account of the tense feeling here I
went to see the Polish Ambassador, Lipski, at 12 o’clock in the
hope of learning what the Polish Government actually thinks
about its situation. He indicated great anxiety : ‘‘Germany owes
us $15,000,000 for freight and passenger service between Ger-
many and East Prussia ; Schacht says Germany can pay only in

328 FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 20 , I936

goods ; we insist on gold or foreign exchange payment ; the two
months’ dispute is now referred to Hitler. What he will do I
cannot guess.” But, I said, the Germans plan going back and
forth to East Prussia over the Baltic Sea on German boats.
What will you do? He said: “We can make no objections, but
we want the payment of a perfectly honest debt and shall close
the railroad across the Corridor if we are not paid.”

When I asked about the German-French quarrel over the
Locarno pact, he said : “We are with France if it comes to war,
but we have a treaty with Germany which is valuable as long
as peace prevails. Our treaty with France takes precedence in
case Germany attacks France.” He added : “We do not favour
applying sanctions against Germany because of her violation of
the Locarno Treaty. That would be terrible for Germany and
cause a repudiation of debts and perhaps produce war.”

When I asked what could be done at the London conference,
he said he could not see what could be done, but that Poland
would support England, not France. This seemed to me in vio-
lation of the French-Polish treaty of which he had spoken so
approvingly. He revealed what one notes every day here : the
complicated nature of relations, racial, economic and political.
Poland owes her independence to the United States, England
and France. She was to have been practically annexed to
Germany under the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, but the entrance of
the United States into the war defeated the enforcement of that
treaty. Yet Poland can hardly move right, rear or left without
a conflict and a possible subordination to Germany.

March 13. Friday, This evening Hitler spoke to a vast crowd
in Karlsruhe on the Rhine. He repeated much of the speech of
March 7, with the suggestion that France and Germany em-
brace each other as friends. He was emotional as usual. His
crowd may have been half voluntary, but as usual vast crowds
were ordered to attend from cities as far away as Freiburg. One
can never say in Germany what an audience really thinks of
Hitler, Goering or Goebbels, because no one dares oppose what
these members of the triumvirate have to say on any subject.

March 14, Saturday, I am told Hitler held Cabinet and official

FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 20 , I936 329

conferences all day today, that Sir Eric Phipps saw Von Neurath
to give the British view of what Germany must do to avoid
possible war, and that Von Neurath argued long with the
Fuehrer. There is much anxiety. However, Hitler speaks at
Munich tonight, taking a flying machine about 8 p.m. He will
repeat what he said at Karlsruhe and have hundreds of thou-
sands of hearers in the city.

March 15, Sunday, Hitler returned early today for another
conference about the German-French dilemma and I hear the
British Ambassador spoke with ^ him rather violently. This is
surprising to me for Sir Eric is a most gentle and suave English-
man. It only means that the situation is dangerous, though
I think war unlikely.

March 16. Monday, We all went rather late to a musical at
the Soviet Embassy. The music was extremely good. There was
a large crowd but only a few Germans were there, nobody in
official positions. It was rather unfortunate as the Germans need
very much to sell goods in Russia for gold. However, Hitler^s
formal denunciation of Russia in his March 7 speech had al-
ready had the effect of closing trade negotiations with a Soviet
commission which had been here some time. Wisdom is not
a Hitler-Goering-Goebbels quality, though cleverness as to
domestic affairs cannot be denied them.

The former Ambassador to Soviet Russia, Nadolny, was
present and very frank in his criticism of the present system here.
The Soviet Ambassador was a perfect gentleman in every way :
manners, dress and bearing such as even the French Ambassador
could not surpass. Although the Russian officials and servants
eat together in the kitchen each day, according to reports,
and are very simple in every way privately, there was the most
protocol bearing all evening in the enormous palace rooms, and
a vast and wonderful spread of foods of all varieties in the most
costly dishes on a long, broad table. Some 200 crowded into the
dining-hall about 1 1 .30 as we were leaving.

March 18, Wednesday, I went to see Von Neurath at 11.30
to get his reactions to events since March 7, He was suave and

L 2

330 FEBRUARY 5 , I936 TO JULY SQ, I936

smiling as if everything he had discussed with me February 29
had worked out according to his advice. He even denied what
he told me on the former occasion, namely, that he was urging
a diplomatic solution of the Rhine demilitarization matter. I
suppose it is impossible to trust even the more conservative
members of the government. His attitude on the Rhine deci-
sion was rather more surprising because I was sure he did not
favour marching soldiers into the Rhine zone in violation of the
Locarno pact. He talked as if everything were going in the best
possible way. His hope was that the London negotiations would
be delayed until May when both Germany and France will have
had elections. As if Hitler ever had real elections !

I went from the Foreign Office to the Reichsbank to talk with
Dr. Schacht who I know is not a Nazi. Schacht talked nearly
an hour. He was of the same temper and tone as Von Neurath.
Everything is going fine. Germany has her Rhine territory
again, she will soon have a restoration of colonies, then perhaps
join the League and re-establish peace all over Europe. His
only anxiety was about German exports which he said were de-
clining on account of the nervousness of other countries. But
that he thought would not continue. I never saw the great
finance chief so optimistic in my life. Certainly Hitler’s stroke
of March 7 has had effects I did not consider all I heard worth
a half-page telegram, and so sent nothing,

March 23. Monday, We sent a long careful telegram last
Friday giving the facts about the possible exchange of the
Blucher Palace at Brandenburger Tor for a large place on the
Tiergartenstrasse. The palace is under the very doors of a Ger-
man Government building and on such a busy street that I have
doubted its value as offices and residence for the U.S. Embassy.
It would require $1,000,000 or more to put it into order, having
cost us $1,700,000 in 1931. The German authorities have
offered to give us offices and residences for all our officials here
and two acres of open park around them in exchange for the
palace. Secretary Phillips, when he was here, was enthusiastic
for the exchange. Former Ambassador Schurman, here m
November, was of the same opinion. So we sent all possible in-
formation and I urged a quick decision in Washington. As we

FEBRUARY 5, 1936 TO JULY 20, I936 331

were about ready to get the message off, Consul-General Jenkins
sent a protest preferring the Blucher Palace in spite of all the
extra expense. I included his statement with the rest.

March 26, Thursday, Professor Richter, one-half or one-
fourth Jew, dismissed from the University of Berlin in 1934^
a very able man interested mainly in the history of German
literature, came this morning to say farewell. He is moving to
Baden about two miles from Basle, Switzerland, where he
wishes to send his children to school. It is a very attractive and
agreeable family. My son spent some months in their house to
learn German, and also to study history, in 1935. I was de-
pressed by the story he told. But such conditions are reported
to me nearly every day.

Two people, Jews, who had live 4 in England nearly two
years, returned a year ago thinking they could teach in a Jewish
school here. They were promptly thrust into jail where they
still remain. The husband’s mother lives in Chicago and my
friend Professor Ferdinand Schevill wrote me a few days ago
begging me to get them out of jail if possible. They would at
once depart for Palestine.

I asked Mr Geist to speak quite personally on his own
account to the Secret Police chief here, Himmler, when he had
occasion to see him about other matters. He did so and showed
Schevill’s letter to him Himmler said he would release the
couple before long, but asked Geist to assist him to locate Com-
munists here whom he would imprison and perhaps even put
to death. I am doubtful about the release of the poor Jews,
entirely guiltless as far as we can learn.

March 27. Friday. Mattie and I drove through Leipzig to
Wartburg in the neighbourhood of Weimar where we wished to
see the famous medieval castle where Luther was hidden away
from the Imperial authorities for nearly a year. We had had
beautiful weather for a week and had thought the prospect good
for a delightful journey.

March 28. Saturday. A grand demonstration has been given
all the way from Berlin to Eisenach of the enthusiasm of the

332 FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 29, I936

German people for the Fuehrer and his recent drive of troops
into the demilitarized zone in the Rhineland. As noted earlier,
Hitler, Goering and Goebbels have made speeches almost every
day or night all over Germany calling upon everybody to vote
approval of the March 7 announcement of foreign policy. In
Leipzig, where one can hardly imagine everybody ready to
shout, all hurrahed for the Fuehrer. There were flags flying
from nearly every house and apartment, big flags and little,
all the HakenkreuZi hideous to look at when one thinks of what
they mean.

While we were in Weimar, Goering was speaking over the
radio and people were gathered in the streets to listen, where
there were radio loud-speakers. The people would raise their
right hands and say '^Heil Hitler’’ as they left. The managers
of the Goethe-Schiller hpuses did the same when we entered.
I simply said ‘‘Good evening.” They showed no resentment.

It was a rather striking thing to note in old Weimar, the
one-time centre of German civilization, that almost all the
houses were flying Hitler flags. How much of all this was
coerced I could not guess. In Eisleben, where Luther repre-
sented the famous German ideal of religious liberty in 1521,
there were the same hurrahs for the regime which now denies
all freedom. On our way to Berlin today we stopped an hour
in Halle to get luncheon The old university town of Lutheran
ideals for three centuries and more showed the same sort of
enthusiasm we had seen everywhere else.

All this is over an election in which there is no choice of
candidates. Hitler had issued a list of names of candidates for
all the districts of Germany soon after his speech March 7, with
no alternative names. Ballots were printed with a circle in
which the voter was to indicate approval. He might write
“No,” but if he did so he was liable to be arrested and im-
prisoned. Only people willing to risk their lives could write
“No.” This was understood from the beginning. Yet Leipzig,
Weimar, Eisleben, Eisenach and Halle were shouting approval
of the whole campaign.

As we drove into Berlin about 5 p.m., two great Zeppelins
were flying slowly over the city. People were crowded every-
where to watch them and pick up cards and leaflets dropped

FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 2 Q, I936 333

down which asked people to vote unanimously for ' ‘liberty,
equality and peace.” Eckener, the captain of the new Zeppelin,
the Hindenhurg^ was supposed to direct the flights.

March sg. Sunday. Today was election day. All the servants
who help keep our house in order, men and women, voted joy-
ously, it appeared, though some compulsion was evident in their
behaviour. However, Fritz the butler, who fought as a private
on the Russian front during the World War, showed his re-
joicing spirit in reference to the reoccupation of the demili-
tarized zone, symbolizing a hatred of France which he freely
indicated.

March go, Monday, Returns from yesterday’s plebiscite
showed about 95 per cent of all Germans had voted approval
of Hitler’s policies. The papers had httle else this morning,
no indication anywhere of the slightest displeasure about a
coerced election or a Reichstag body which meets perhaps once
a year to shout “Heil Hitler” when he makes a speech. I have
attended two of these so-called Reichstag gatherings and on
both occasions not a word was spoken by members, except
“Heil Hitler” at pauses in his speech.

Our newspapers reported yesterday’s election and a reporter
told me that in the old Communist areas of Berlin there were
25 per cent opposition votes. These negative votes were not
allowed to be reported. Dr. Goebbels is shouting thanks in all
the German papers for the amazing, free election and the un-
precedented enthusiasm of the great, free German population !

April 4., Saturday. To my surprise the Soviet Ambassador
came to the office this morning. He stayed nearly an hour, talk-
ing about the French dilemma, the lessening of the tension be-
tween Russia and Japan and the dangers in the Balkan zone.
He agreed with me as to the importance of friendly co-opera-
tion of those little states, but doubted its possibility. He in-
sisted as before that Russia is not aggressive anywhere. She
only wants peace.

The Fuehrer, after two or three days of conferences with a
Cabinet whose members dare not oppose him, except in con-

334 FEBRUARY 5 , I936 TO JULY 29, I936

versations before final decisions, has disappeared for a two or
three weeks’ vacation in south Germany, I think at Berchtes-
gaden in the mountain area of Bavaria where he looks longingly
over the Austrian border at his homeland.

We learn today that some Austrian and Czechoslovak Ger-
mans are new members of the Reichstag. The fact that Hitler
decreed them members is symbolic of his so-called peace policy.
The claim of the right to annex parts or all of these countries
is thus subtly announced. If the United States made Americans
who have homes in Mexico and are Mexican citizens members
of Congress there would be a world- wide commotion. Yet not
a word is said here or elsewhere about these new Reichstag
members. The German propagandist in Switzerland, killed two
months ago by a Jew, only represented a similar feeling of the
Hitler party towards Switzerland

Naturally all small countries lying next to Germany are un-
easy. The maps which show them as parts of the Third Reich
are still circulating If Hitler is able to build his fortifications
along the French front to match the French fortifications, then
he may at any convenient moment put his great army on the
Austrian or even the Polish frontier, annex as much territory
as he wishes and then call upon the enthusiastic German people
to give him another unanimous vote of approval. A ten-year
peace would enable him to do anything he wishes; therefore,
‘‘peace and prosperity” are his slogans.

Yet today’s papers announce that 4,000,000 boys between ten
and fourteen are to be compelled to wear knives. These are
evidences of honour. They are to be worn, as are the daggers by
boys between fourteen and eighteen, and the young boys are
to be trained in military performances in all the schools, as are
the older ones. Even young women are trained in certain war
services. This spells “peace” in the Hitler language. How can
Von Schirach and Rosenberg, intimate counsellors of the
Fuehrer, proclaim Hitler a second Jesus Christ before vast
public gatherings and be applauded to the limit?

Roy Howard had a long interview with the Fuehrer two
months ago. When Hitler complained violently about the 340
Germans per square mile with no land to go to, Howard said,
“ Why do you then pay every woman for her third child, with

FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 2 Q, I936 335

more for her fourth one, and why pay people to marry?” The
Fuehrer could not reply without giving his real motive. He
refused to answer and later forbade publication of this in the
interview. In yesterday’s Paris Herald^ it was announced from
Berlin that the German Government had given $125,000,000
to couples who have married since 1933. An increasing popu-
lation for the Third Reich means either war or peaceful ”
seizure of other peoples’ land.

April 6 , Monday. Messersmith came to our house for a lun-
cheon today where some twenty-five people took seats at the
table, the wife of the unhappy French Ambassador on my
right. Others were the new Chinese Ambassador, who reports
that he attended my history lectures in Chicago ; the Austrian
Minister; Udet, the great pilot and air adviser to Goering;
Consul-General Jenkins ; and Mr. Wright, a mining expert of
the Interior Department in Washington who is making a com-
plete survey of European mineral resources This was the usual
^^show” luncheon we give, absolutely necessary from the diplo-
matic point of view, perhaps not so bad since we always have
a number of Germans whom we have met and they can thus
see what sort of folk Americans are.

Messersmith reported that the Austrians are very uneasy.
Schuschnigg, the Chancellor, had been in conference with
Mussolini on March 18 and 19 and as a result Austria ordered
universal military service which the Italian dictator had
recommended. Messersmith was convinced the Italians would
help Austria in case of a German attack.

I told him I had my doubts because Italy wants to annex
Egypt and if Germany will approve that, Mussolini will ap-
prove German annexation of Austria He reported that Musso-
lini had said he hated Hitler, the very sight of him. That I
thought was for effect on Schuschnigg rather than an expres-
sion of real hatred, though I do not thinkThe two dictators love
each other. Germans hate Italy to the limit and Italians feel
the same towards the Germans, much as the latter spend their
savings in Venice, Florence, Rome and Naples.

I expressed my opinion to Messersmith that Italy will hold
Albania, keep close to Austria and threaten Yugoslavia until

336 FEBRUARY 5, I 936 TO JULY 20, I 936

the Mediterranean struggle comes. Then she will yield Aus-
tria, take Egypt and allow Germany to have the Balkan states
she demands if she has control of Palestine, Greece and Syria.
Mussolini will re-establish the Roman dictatorship, Germany
will become the master of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hun-
gary. If the Germans build their fortifications as planned on
the French frontier, there will be nobody to stop her moves.
Messersmith was not of a really different view, and he agreed
that the poor Balkan peoples so hate one another that they
invite this.

April 7. Tuesday, I called on Secretary von Biilow today. He
is not a Nazi and is reported never to have conferred with Hit-
ler about anything. Von Bulow answered many questions re-
servedly. He said: ‘‘Economically Mussolini owns Albania.
That distresses our friends, the clever Yugoslavs, but we have
made no protests As to Austria, we are doing nothing, and we
would make no protest if Mussolini annexed Egypt. As to the
possibility of war, there is none. France is excited but their
generals do not favour war now and their people are dead
against hostilities on account of Hitler’s Rhine occupation.”

This was nothing new at all, and I cannot see why he took
the time he did. Practically all Germans want to control, if not
annex, everything between their present eastern boundary and
the Black Sea. Not even an educated republican German ob-
jects to the great risks in this direction. That would mean an
empire of 1 50,000,000 people and control of all Europe as the
United States once thought of controlling all the two Americas.

Next, I went to see the British Ambassador on the same
street. Sir Eric Phipps is not the best-informed man on Euro-
pean history, but he knows contemporary Europe as few others
do. In January he was ready to help his government to the
limit against German aggression and willing to support the
French-Soviet pact, wrangled over in Europe for a year. He
had said then that France and England were offering a solid
front and Italy was expected to join them.

Today he was uncertain about what his country should do in
any direction. All Europe is in a critical situation. Italy may
seize all Ethiopia and even Egypt, which would mean imme-

FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 29, I936 337

diate war in the Mediterranean. France might break across the
German western frontier which England would not support.
Germany is preparing to the limit for eastern aggression and
England won’t do anything. I said : That means a new Europe,
with France declining, England losing her empire and Germany
becoming the master of all.

April II, Saturday, William N. Enstrom, representing the
Irving Trust Co. of New York, came in for a talk about the
financial situation here. I had to refer him to our finance ex-
pert, Mr. Flack, and finally to Dr. Schacht who is now on his
vacation in South Germany, near Basle where he goes monthly
to confer with international bankers. Enstrom revealed an atti-
tude towards Roosevelt which surprised me. Surely he was not
simply drawing me out ! He predicted the President’s re-election
by a large margin and he also said a defeat would be calamity.
It is rare that a great bank official expresses such views.

We are at the end of the week during which England and
France have laboured at Geneva to find some way out of the
dilemma which has been growing worse every week since
December 15, 1935 The British Foreign Secretary Eden is
the only eminent leader in Europe who seems to understand
the drift.

Italy is fighting with increasing success in Ethiopia, aiming
to control the Mediterranean and cut off England from her vast
Far Eastern possessions. Mussolini thinks himself a new Caesar
entitled to recover what Rome controlled 2,000 years ago. If
he succeeds, England’s power declines as did that of the
Netherlands after 1713 — a sad move for Europe.

Anthony Eden saw this danger and urged the stopping of
Mussolini’s ruthless war by sanctions on all war supplies. But
the Foreign Secretary, Hoare, influenced by great oil and other
corporations, agreed with the French Foreign Secretary, Laval,
to defeat Eden and leave Mussolini a fairly free course of
conquest. France had promised Mussolini everything he asked
in January, 1935, in a secret agreement contrary to French
obligations as a member of the League of Nations.

When the Hoare-Laval announcement was made in Decem-
ber, Mussolini saw his way to Caesar’s position more clearly.

338 FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 20 , I936

England was so perturbed that Hoare was compelled to resign
and Eden was appointed Foreign Secretary: too late to save
England’s case in the League France still hoped to enlist the
Italians on her side in case of a German threat of war But
Hitler quickly saw his opportunity, and Goebbels spoke on De-
cember 17 in praise of Mussolini, saying his success meant Ger-
man recovery of her colonies. From December 15 to March 6,
high German officials worked and conferred with army officers
for a united front to seize the demilitarized Rhine zone, de-
nouncing the French-Soviet peace pact and asking for all the
German colonies of 1 9 14 The German people, who hate Italians
as much or more than the French, rallied slowly, and on March 7
came the strategic Hitler appeal to Europe. On March 29
came the plebiscite which gave Hitler a 95 per cent vote.

This week the League and Locarno conferences have been
held in the vast palace in Geneva. Eden could do nothing.
Flandin, French Foreign Secretary, would do nothing. The two
dictators are happier than they have ever been before. The
small European states, Holland, Denmark, Czechoslovakia,
Rumania and others, are more uneasy than at any time since
the end of the World War Austria is the next objective of
Hitler, and Egypt the next ambition of Mussolini. At least this
appears to be true from all the evidence available. England and
France, having failed to see realities, have put themselves in
dangerous positions and practically ruined the League, their
one hope of avoiding war.

April 16, Thursday. I went to say good-bye to Von Bulow,
perhaps the most sensible and charming man in the Foreign
Office. He talked about the dangerous and wicked war of
Mussolini and agreed that he is certainly a menace to European
peace However, he added, he believes Mussolini is not so
near to the mastery of all Ethiopia as he proclaims. He
foresees complete surrender because he fears the coming rainy
season may defeat him. His economic situation is exceedingly
dangerous

Von Bulow informed me ‘‘the French Government is prepar-
ing a series of questions to be sent us next week. They have to
do with the Locarno question and the proposed peace of Hitler.

FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 29, 1 936 339

We can answer the questions fairly well, but they wired us not
to reply until the elections are over in France, on May 3, so
we are convinced there is nothing very pressing It seems to me
peace is fairly secure for months to come. The League can do
nothing but talk and delay. In case France were to agree to
have no alliances, I think we all might unite in a European
League for Mutual Security.”

At luncheon we sat down with some interesting people at our
table : Dr. Hugo Eckener, the great Zeppelin engineer who has
just returned from Brazil, Karl von Wiegand, the United Press
general representative William Philip Simms, and Counsellor
Mayer. Dr. Eckener was the one man who interested us all.
He declined to fly his ship apd propagandize for Hitler on
April 28 and 29 when the new Zeppehn, the Hindenburg^ was
ordered to fly all over Germany. That caused Goebbels to see
Hitler and ask what should be done to the indispensable cap-
tain. It IS reported that Hitler ranted and shouted that the
man must be dismissed. That was not possible, and Goebbels
gave the German press an order never again to mention Dr.
Eckener’s name. Although the Hindenburg was caught m a
dangerous storm on the way back from Brazil last week and
the machinery damaged, there was no mention of the com-
mander’s name.

When Dr. Eckener talked at table about a flight to the
United States, I said: ^‘You might take Dr. Goebbels with you
and let him see the United States.” Dr. Eckener seemed
amazed and, after a pause, everybody roared with laughter.
The joke was understood. Later the flier explained his plans
for going to the United States and calling on President Roose-
velt. But he insisted that Goebbels must recall his order or he
would resign and there would be no flight this year across the
dangerous North Atlantic. I am wondering what Hitler will
order to be done.

April 18, Saturday, I began my long journey back to the
United States this morning, driving to Hamburg, my wife and
daughter with me. We arrived in Hamburg at 4 1 5 but lost
nearly a half hour in finding the City of Baltimore, There had
been rain and snow all the way from Berlin to Hamburg. The

340 FEBRUARY 5, I 936 TO JULY 20, I 936

country looked beautiful for that part of Germany, wheat,
barley, rye everywhere and quite green for the season.

April ig. Sunday, In bed all day, but the sea was beautiful,
this old sea where thousands of ships, of peace and war, must
lie on the bottom, and perhaps millions of men’s bones in them.
What a sad story if the real history of these waters could be
known since the time of Julius Caesar ! I never sail over this
region without wondering what poor mankind has done here.

As night approached, I was out a few minutes on the deck
to view the southern coast of England where the Romans first
went across to capture the attractive country, where the Saxons
in the fifth and sixth centuries entered to crowd the mixed Celts
and Romans westward, and where the Normans landed in 1066
to conquer the people who had been organized and made a
nation by Alfred the Great, whose monument I pondered upon
in October, 1928, in the beautiful English town of Winchester.

Poor, rich, powerful England, for three hundred years the
leading cultural country of the world, the builder of the amaz-
ing empire of 1600 to 1914 — ^now beginning to decline* If Italy
seizes her strategic positions in the Mediterranean, as Mussolini
plans to do, the Empire will begin to fall to pieces. If Ger-
many under Hitler or his successor seizes the control of the
Balkan states to Constantinople, as planned, then England loses
her leadership of western Europe. To me these moves seem
logical, tragic but inevitable. They will be calamitous for the
ideals of the English people whose leaders during the past six
or eight years have made the saddest blunders possible.

April 22, Wednesday. I am instinctively of a nervous nature.
My food does not digest properly, headaches spread over the
nerve connections between the stomach, shoulders and brain
until sleep is almost impossible, and that only adds to the dis-
comfort of ocean travel. While I am never seasick in the ordi-
nary sense, I was in bed all day yesterday reading a German
book on Roosevelt and His Revolution trying to counteract the
influence of the stormy sea and rolling stateroom. There was
no quiet until i o’clock, the ship moving steadily. The book on
the President and his task is good, though not altogether right.

FEBRUARY 5 , I936 TO JULY 2 g, I936 34I

The Atlantic is certainly a rough part of the world, where
most sea trade goes on from year to year. Somehow boat life
annoys me. I can’t imagine myself in the position of an officer
or seaman even on the safest of vessels. Such a life is incom-
prehensible to me. Yet the men on this ship seem to be quite
content with their lives.

June 22, Monday, I arrived here, the University of Chicago,
Saturday morning in the best of health. Six weeks at my Round
Hill farm, ‘‘Stoneleigh,” were among the best of my life. The
State Department agreed to leave me as free from interruption
as possible and the arrangement was observed strictly. I was
outdoors in the warm sun about ten hours each day, working a
little here, a little there, helping to build an annex to my house
for a library, improving roads that needed repairs very much,
and even supervising the hauling of rocks necessary to build the
annex. The work was not too heavy at any time but quite
useful to the simple fellows who were working for me.

There were people who seemed amazed that I should work
with ordinary labourers, but anyone could see that without my
help they would not have done more than half what they did.
The weather was so beautiful and my dairy farm was in the best
condition I have seen it in years, with a fine corn crop growing
in spite of a brief drought in May. The thirty cows yield $175
a month. If the present tenant learns how to raise all needful
feed, he will really make a net profit, even with the low milk
prices in Washington. The only criticism I had to make of the
tenant was about his careless treatment of the horses which I
furnished him.

This morning the news came from Berlin that my friend,
Secretary von Bulow of the Foreign Office, is dead. It is sad
news to me. He was one of the noble figures in the sad complex
in Berlin. He took cold a few days ago and the cold drifted into
pneumonia and he could not rally against it — one of the things
I fear will happen to me. We both were quite sensitive to cold,
both having little electric heaters near our desks in our offices. I
sent a cable to Secretary von Neurath indicating my great sorrow.
Von Bulow was a genuine patriot and many times indicated to
me his real feelings about the regime under which he worked.

342 FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 2 Q, I936

June 28, Sunday. This university where I first appeared on
Andrew G. McLaughlin’s invitation in the summer of 1908, is
the most appealing to me of any in the world. Perhaps this is
partisanship, but certainly there are many real, truth-seeking
professors and many promising young scholars coming here
every year. President Hutchins, whose call depended in 1929
a good deal on what Professor Charles E. Merriam and I
thought of him, is very able and ambitious, sometimes very
unwise in his methods of selecting new scholars for different
faculties. He is now away; perhaps he is away on purpose while
I am here He knows my difference of opinion with him in
some important matters. His article in the current Tale Review
shows his theoretical attitude.

I think universities should be free-thinking and free-speaking
centres of study and research. He thinks the same, but has the
idea that presidents should select professors without the agree-
ment of the faculty members already at work who know the
prospective scholars far better than he can know them. He has
the dictatorship idea in this and reorganization matters. My way
would be faculty recommendation, debate and maj’ority deci-
sions. That would increase the interest and effectiveness of schol-
ars, always tempted to be absorbed in their own fields of work.

July I, Wednesday. I talked last night on world commerce
and free trade, on the industrial-financial revolutions which
paralleled the amazing trade profits of 1846 to 1912, on the
abnormal building of great cities, and finally on the World War
and its effects on economic-social life everywhere between 1918
and 1936, I have never had such close attention, and at the end
the applause surpassed anything I have ever experienced. All
the papers and press people had a full outline of what I said,
but I was sure the Chicago papers would not publish it. This
morning I noted that the Tribune tried to exploit what I said
parenthetically about Woodrow Wilson in the hope of injuring
his fame. The Daily News put a brief story on page 10, the
Tribune on page 4. The Hearst papers printed only two inches,
after their reporters had spent a half hour with me trying in
vain to get an interview on Europe and making half a dozen
snapshot pictures.

FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 29, I936 343

July 21, Tuesday. I have to leave Chicago tonight for Cleve-
land where I am to speak once more on the Dilemma of Modern
Civilization^ which the Chicago papers have been unwilling to
report. The editors are big business men who think protective
tariffs are a blessing, who still think they can sell abroad no
matter how little they buy and who do not like my accounts
of the way our country has paid its debts after wars. Moreover,
every paper here of any wide circulation is dead against Roose-
velt and cannot allow even an historic approach to the dilemma.
This is an attitude of the press the President has had to contend
with from the beginning. But other papers, only a few about
the country, call attention to my warnings against the dangers
ahead.

My work here has been heavy. Great numbers of most com-
petent students who are teachers in all parts of the country
have taken my time. From what they say the university’s merg-
ing of history into the social sciences as a minor subj’ect is most
discouraging. They lament the failure of the university to give
American history in a large comprehensive way, and add that
they cannot get sufficient knowledge except upon their own
initiative and with library work This is Hutchins’ system. I
have long feared his scheme of limiting departments and avoid-
ing departmental selection of professors would greatly injure
this institution. Nothing is more important than eminent pro-
fessors developing their subjects their own way, fiist being sure
the professors are worthy of appointment. I am distressed at
Chicago University Sometimes I wish I might again bring
pressure to bear here.

July 24. Friday. Driving down to Washington, where the
weather was most oppressive, I saw Secretary Hull. We talked
freely a few minutes about the failure of the German commis-
sioners who were recently with him and the possibility of Roose-
velt’s defeat I regretted that Germany could make no changes
in her bilateral commercial treaties This meant the application
of a penalty tariff on German imports, since Germany could
not, under Hitler, open her market to American exports : the
sad plight of modern industrial countries.

As to Roosevelt’s re-election, Hull said he was fairly certain

344 FEBRUARY 5, I936 TO JULY 2 Q, I936

of success, but, he added, the President cannot speak ‘Vnat you
and I believe the truth about tariff follies. The people are now
protectionists.” If this is correct it is the first time in American
history when protective tariffs would receive a majority vote.

Washington is the most disagreeable city I know in some
respects. The traffic is concentrated about Pennsylvania and
Constitution Avenues in such a way as to make movements in
a car or on foot most difficult and dangerous. The construction
of government buildings close together reminds one of the
stupidity of the Loop district of Chicago where millions of
people labour or move about with great danger. Modern
peoples think they must pack themselves in cities and refuse to
leave even vhen starvation confronts them. How different from
the spirit and purposes of the people who founded the North
American colonies and later the Union !

July 2 g, Wednesday. I sailed on the Washington today at 12
o’clock. Now comes the renewal of the distressing tension of
my residence in Berlin where democracy is denounced almost
every day.

X

August 7 , ig^6 to December 25 , igg6

August 7, Friday, We arrived in Hamburg after a slow all-
day ride in the low-tide river, the Elbe. I hurried in my car
to Berlin with our chauffeur. In Berlin at lo 30, after a long
and most beneficial vacation in Virginia and Chicago, in spite
of my heavy university work. All the way from Hamburg to
Berlin, about 200 miles, the countryside looked beautiful and
prosperous, as ever in spring and summer.

August g. Sunday night. I attended the lOO-year-old Herren
Club where Von Papen, Von Neurath, the French Ambassador
and others sat at the table where I was, but I heard no really
revealing conversation about anything. It was a large show,
with 150 people present, in honour of the Olympic Games
which are attracting so much attention. It’s the club whose
members were expecting to be killed the last week in June,
1934, one of whom came to me for help. Kaiser Wilhelm I,
Von Hindenburg and Hitler stood out in great paintings on
the main dining-room wall.

Aside from the dinner there was nothing worth while,
though Von Neurath did say he had been talking over long
distance with Madrid this afternoon. Nothing decisive was
happening in Spam, he said, and not apt to happen in a month.
He said: ‘‘All peoples are committing economic suicide by
their foolish trade and financial policies. Schacht was right in
his recent speech.”

August 14 Friday Fritz Kuhn, Nazi Fuehrer in America,
brought a group of German-Americans to my office. Kuhn is
a Nazi propagandist who once worked in Henry Ford’s factory
in Detroit He is guiding his party of visitors about Germany
to convince them that Nazism is the salvation of modern

346 AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

peoples He kept his purpose from me but I have since learned
that he represents Bohle of the Foreign Office of the Nazi
Party

Yesterday we went to Goering’s garden party in honour of the
Olympic Games commissioners here. It’s the old Prussian royal
palace where Goermg feels so much at home, a mansion far
larger and more elaborately fitted out than the White House
in Washington. The garden, in the very heart of the city, is
about as large as the front lawn of the White House. There
were huge spotlights on the tops of surrounding houses which
shed light over the area almost as bright as day-time. And there
were hundreds of lights suspended from trees about the place.
There was hardly anything that modern inventors could have
added.

Ministers of the government, Goebbels, Von Neurath, Von
Blomberg and others were grouped about with ambassadors
and ministers from all over the world. I talked a little with
Schacht and walked around the park with Sir Eric Phipps As
we all sat down about 8 30 to eat at hundreds of tables, small
and large, the wind was cold and damp, and the electric heaters
about the place were of no value, as the breeze took the warmth
away. I saw that I would take cold, but my wife argued against
my wearing my hat and overcoat which I had left in the palace
as we entered. But as the air grew colder and colder, I got my
hat and coat I felt less conspicuous when I saw Lewald, the
German chief of the Olympic Games commission, had his hat
also, and Sir Eric Phipps was leaving because of the cold.

It was the greatest display I have ever seen, with actors and
actresses dancing in eighteenth-century garb on the lawn The
famous air pilot Udet had arranged a flying machine perform-
ance which showed all the tricks of the expert stunt flyer. We
looked at the show for a time, as also at other displays. But the
weather was so cold that I decided to leave at 10.15. I
sure my colds of last year would return.

August Jj. Saturday. A report of the American Consul at
Stuttgart in southern Germany says the press over that region
is quite open in its discussion of Spanish relations. The general
idea they suggest is for the Fascist-Nazi powers to assist the

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 347

revolutionary, or rather the reactionary, army crowd of Spain
to regain control there. Then Germany and Italy, having lent
assistance, would divide the Spanish colonial possessions and
enter into some entente arrangement which would give the
three dictatorships control of Europe without war

While I had not foreseen this immediate Spanish situation,
I had forecast the German-Italian control of Europe in private
reports to Washington. The events of last autumn pointed
towards this outcome. Hitler’s speech of March 7 was a master
stroke in this direction. The failure of English-French co-
operation against Italy in the Ethiopian conquest seemed to me
to doom democracy in Europe. In these last weeks the Spanish
conflict seems to offer another opportunity to Mussolini and
Hitler. They can hardly fail since England is helpless and
France so divided that a dictatorship seems unavoidable. The
United States, having failed in 1919-20 to co-operate in
European affairs, now faces a sohd dictatorship front which in
due time will give serious trouble. How unwise our minority
Senators were and have continued to be !

A member of my staff told me today that our Counsellor
Mayer, who was sent here last December, decided before I
left last April to get into closer relations with Goering, and
negotiate a treaty with Germany. He made all sorts of advances
to Goering, who received the impression that I would be re-
called by Roosevelt soon or retire if Roosevelt should be de-
feated in November. I thought last March he was cultivating
the German dictators far more cordially than either Mr. White
or Mr. Gordon, his predecessors.

When Mayer wrote the State Department saying he was
offering to open negotiations, the Secretary advised against it.
But when two representatives were urged to come over to talk
things over, Goering was most friendly and invited the Coun-
sellor more than once to see him. He also gave him a dinner.
The State Department sent two representatives to Germany,
but they refused to come to Berlin.

Goering, with Hitler’s approval, sent a representative to see
them in Munich. No real concessions were offered for a treaty
and the United States agents went home. Goering, and per-
haps *Mayer, thought I had defeated the move. Never a word

348 AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

was said to me in Washington. Of course I had nothing to do
with the matter.

Then two Senators came over, Wheeler and Barkley. Mayer
dined them in grand style and asked Goering to sit with them.
Goering accepted but failed to appear at the last moment,
apparently angry with Mayer. Wheeler was among those at
a dinner in Washington where Germany’s right to be dictator
of all Europe was approved. He reported to Mayer that I was
unpopular over the whole United States. This was in no way
evidenced to me when I was there in June and July. These
Senators are reported to have said that I would soon be recalled.
What they really said or had in mind, I shall try to learn.

August 16, Sunday. We went this afternoon at 1.30 to the
Olympic Games Stadium for the closing contests and final an-
nouncements. I spoke one minute over the radio to the United
States.

As we entered the seven-mile street at the Great Star circle
in the Tiergarten, we saw the flags of Germany and many of
the other nations flying from hundreds of tall poles. The flags
continued all the way to the stadium, with swastika flags flying
from the windows of every house. On both sides of the streets,
all the way, were uniformed S.A. and S.S. soldiers, standing
close together. There must have been 100,000 soldiers.

We took our places with the other ambassadors on the front
row of seats. Hitler and Goering and other Nazis, including
the generals, were to be seated on reserved seats high above
us and a little behind. Hitler arrived at 3 o’clock. The races
then began, horse-jumping contests between many countries.
They continued until 8 o’clock. Then came announcements and
the awarding of medals and honours. The great stadium field
was lighted by electric machines from the top rows of the seats
all around and by curious electric streams of lights meeting
some two or three hundred feet above the performances, I have
never seen such an» elaborate show.

Last night, we went to Dr. Goebbels’ reception for diplomats
and Olympic people on a beautiful island near Dahlem, fifteen
miles out of town. It was the site of a former Jewish mansion.
We shook hands with the host, the man who had helped in

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 349

June 30, 1934, to murder Germans who have never been shown
to have been guilty of anything but opposition to the Nazi
regime. I disliked the hand-shake as I did that with Goering
at a similar show two days before. We sat down at a small
table near Goebbels’ main table, although I am second ranking
diplomat here, the French Ambassador being first, I preferred
this and Goebbels had not asked us to his table.

In a little while the dinner was served, some 2,000 people
supposed to be present. There were beautiful lights strung all
over the island, some in trees. The French Ambassador and his
wife, the Italian Ambassador and his wife, Von Neurath and
some Olympic Committee people took their places with Goeb-
bels. We were near enough to note that there was no really
cordial conversation, which is a rare thing at diplomatic
functions.

When the dinner closed, dancing began on an elevated plat-
form near us. It was not unlike the dancing at Goering’s recep-
tion, imitating Greek and Victorian performances. About 10
o’clock there was shooting of a kind that suggested war. This
continued for a half hour, a great many people complaining at
this form of war propaganda. People at our table trembled
when the bombing made such a terrible noise. There were of
course no real shots or shells, but there were explosions which
almost made the ground shake.

This display, like VonRibbentrop’s and Goering’s, must have
cost 40,000 marks of government money. How much the
Olympic show cost one can hardly imagine, though I would
guess 75,000,000 marks. The propaganda of it all may have
pleased the Germans. It had a bad influence on foreigners, as
reported to me, m spite of the fine entertainment of all concerned.

August 18. Tuesday, I talked today with Dr. Schacht who
has hitherto been most friendly and frank. I never heard him
criticize the United States in such a vehement spirit. He was
violent in his language about the decision of the government
not to allow German subsidized imports. I asked him if it were
understood here that I had done anything in the United States
to precipitate this decision. He said: ‘‘Oh, no. I know you
have always favoured freer trade.”

350 AUGUST 75 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

He laid the blame on the President and on Secretary Mor-
genthau. He ridiculed the idea that the tariff law makes the
decision necessary, and then said Germany will buy nothing else
from America He never mentioned the subsidy difficulty, but
criticized Secretary Hull for his system of treaties and indi-
cated the German anger about the relations between the United
States and Brazil which he said had defeated German trade
plans in Brazil I do not know the details of this and hence
did not discuss it.

Schacht then said : ^^Well, we shall not pay interest on your
bank bonds Your people demand 6 and 7 per cent from us
when they get only 2 and 3 per cent for loans at home.” I
let him go on, although I knew most Americans who held
German bonds had agreed to 3J and 4 per cent interest.
Schacht further added : ‘^You gave us the League of Nations
and then would have nothing to do with it. Now Germany asks
for colonies and the right to expand.” I said: But that is
England’s business ; we have often said at home Germany ought
to have her colonies returned.

He went on urging that Roosevelt call a world conference
after his re-election and insist upon Germany’s rights, although
he blamed the President for his Chautauqua speech about world
peace. ^‘We have been arming for three years and have paid
all the cost of it.”

I replied . But war is apt to mean the collapse of civilization.
Yes, he agreed: ^'A general war would mean world- wide
Communism and total economic collapse ”

It was a revelation of Schacht’s hostility never before shown.
It seemed clear that he thinks Germany, if she continues to
increase her sway in Europe, will and must resist to the limit,
perhaps even fight the United States When I mentioned some
blunders Germany had made in religious matters, he replied :
"‘You are right; it was a mistake. Won’t you see Hitler about
that?” I felt his sarcasm but could not help saying: The
Fuehrer would go into a fury and I do not care to witness that

Although Schacht insisted upon his friendliness to me and
agreed to keep our talk confidential, I had the feeling that what
we said was registered on a government machine connected
with his telephone.

AUGUST 7 ,, 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 35I

August 23, Sunday For three days now German official atti-
tudes have been impossible to ascertain. We know that Hitler
held a conference here with some Cabinet members and ranted
violently about the Spanish search of a German war vessel off
their coast beyond the legal zone Von Blomberg was much
opposed to a war-hke move. Hitler quieted down after a
while and a protest was sent to the helpless Spanish Govern-
ment.

Miss Schultz, the Chicago Tribune correspondent, reported
that she knew twenty-five German airplanes had been sent last
week from Dusseldorf to the rebels m Spain. At the same time
I learned that Von Blomberg had forbidden Dr. Schacht to
ship airplanes and war material to Bulgaria, saying: ''All war
material must remain at home, so imminent is the danger.’’
Schacht was distressed because he so much needed foreign ex-
change with which to buy foodstuffs and raw materials. I do not
see how the Spanish rebels can pay for their imports.

Friday and Saturday the German press was wild in its attack
on Russia because it was said they had 12,000,000 soldiers ready
for war and forty submarines in the Baltic Sea. Denunciations
of Russia were the worst I have ever noticed m my three years
here. The denunciation of the Spanish Government was equally
violent. There seemed to be grave danger of an immediate war
move.

Mr. Wright, an expert student here for six months of Ger-
man war and other resources, reported to me that a leader,
frequently asked to become economic secretary under Schacht,
had solemnly said to him that Germany was ready for war
soon, but that if she did go to war there would be defeat and
that Hitler would be overthrown. He thinks the German masses
would not fight as they did in the World War. Mr. Wright
reported further the difficulty of supporting a great war very
long. It would be impossible to get supplies and foodstuffs. I
am inclined to think Wright estimates fairly well, except that
war is always more possible than economists think. Oil, gas,
and foodstuffs would be the costly necessities.

In spite of all the newspaper and general excitement during
the last days of the week, we have a silent press today. There is
no repetition of attacks on Russia, France or Spain. Some order

352 AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

has been given out to stop everything. Hitler is in Berchtes-
gaden, Von Neurath is near Stuttgart, and Von Blomberg is
quiet at his suburban place here. I think the demonstrations
were to prepare the German people for increased war prepara-
tions and for the understanding of and submission to food
shortages, already being talked about anxiously.

August 25. Tuesday. We had a luncheon, the third large one
since my return from Chicago. Some interesting guests included
Dr. Dieckhoff, Dr. Leitner and his wife, for nine years Coun-
sellor to the German Embassy m Washington, Dr. Thomsen,
personal secretary to Hitler, who is going to Washington to
take Leitner’s place, Mr. and Mrs. Pierson of the government
Import-Export Bank in Washington for assisting international
trade, and several others, including the Minister from Nica-
ragua, supposed to be strongly pro-French. The conversation
could not be free or interesting because of the various opposing
opinions. So we talked a lot, said nothing, and ate heartily.
After the luncheon I sounded Dieckhoff out, but there was no
real comment on German policy, except its anti-Gommunist
attitude towards Spain.

Leon Blum, the French Prime Minister, said a few days ago
that the great problem in France was substantial unity, a com-
bination of all moderate and radical groups behind a struggle
for the sort of real democracy which France has never had in
spite of all her efforts since 1789. I doubt Blum’s success. If
the Italians and Germans set up a Nazi or Fascist regime in
Madrid, through their propaganda and secret assistance to
General Franco, Freuice is going to be in the most difficult
position since the fall of Napoleon I.

August sg. Saturday. Nothing is more oppressive to a demo-
crat, not a Democrat and also not a Communist, than the situa-
tion in Europe. Hitler is the absolute master of Germany’s
68,000,000 people, Mussolini is master of Italy’s 42,000,000,
and the dominant groups in Poland, Austria, Hungary and
Rumania are already Fascist. We have reports that Mussolini
sent word to Franco that any general who precipitated the dic-
tatorship movement in Spain, on July 17, would receive Italian

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 353

help to overthrow the democratic (partly radical) government
of Spain. All the world knows the horrors that have been per-
petrated in Spain since August. Hitler is, or was, certainly send-
ing aid to Franco and the Nazi Party here has been maintaining
propaganda activity in Spain for several years.

A story comes today from a Vienna newspaper man that
Schuschnigg, the dictator of Austria, was with Hitler at Berch-
tesgaden a few days ago. He also says the situation of Austria
is such that it is a pure waste of money to have a United States
legation in Vienna. That has been my opinion for more than a
year. Another reputable journalist reported that Mussolini told
him: “Do not go to Vienna. Rome and Berlin determine
Austrian affairs.” It is mostly Berlin, however.

A few days ago Dr. Schacht went to Paris on a special mis-
sion. There were many rumours as to his purpose. My guess,
supported by the French Ambassador’s remarks here today, is
that he went with instructions from Hitler to work out a deal
with the French Fascists before the expected fall of Blum, the
Prime Minister there now. Before Schacht left here early this
week he talked with Frangois-Poncet, who is not far from being
a Fascist. From newspaper stories one might think it was a
simple financial mission. I think the second object of the visit
was the hope of buying cotton and copper in France from
Americans, since the trade situation between Germany and the
United States does not allow cotton or copper to be sent directly.
These materials are the most necessary of war stuffs. Frangois-
Poncet acknowledged this today.

One other story today says Mussolini was with Hitler last
Saturday. I doubt it, but Goebbels, shrewdest of all the dicta-
tors here, is in Venice. So the pressure everywhere is for dic-
tatorships, in all countries except England, where the foolish
Conservatives are in power, in Czechoslovakia, where there is a
movement to surrender to Hitler, and in Russia where Com-
munism is again executing its opponents. In the United States,
capitalists are pressing in the same Fascist direction, supported
by capitalists in England. Nearly all our diplomatic service
people here have indicated their drift in the same direction.
Violently hostile to the Nazi regime for three years, they are
now half supporting it.

M

354 AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

August 30. Sunday. The last few days here were quiet, but
the newspapers continue their violent agitation against Russia
and Communism. Young Armand Berard of the French Gov-
ernment has been here for several days. His picture of the
French dilemma is very discouraging. Prime Minister Blum
has a few Jews in his Cabinet, very able and popular men when
appointed. Now an anti-Semitic campaign is increasing its acti-
vity all the time and this adds to the strength of the Fascists.
They now have a leader, the renegade Jacques Doriot, a man
who has a certain following among Paris workers and is
financed by French industrialists. Next November Blum is al-
most certain to be overthrown and, if so, a Fascist regime is
quite possible. That would be what Schacht wishes. Berard goes
back tomorrow via a flying machine.

September i. Tuesday. We all went to the flying field at
4 p.m. to meet my son William, returning from Shanghai
where he has been working for the International Peace Cam-
paign, a popular-front group with representatives in the United
States, England, France, Switzerland, and even Russia. Mr.
Berard waited over a day and he was with us. William’s flying
plane was two and a half hours late and the young Frenchman
had to take his Paris plane back before William arrived.

I was quite uneasy before the plane landed, lest the sharp
winds from the North and Baltic Seas might have brought his
plane down. He arrived, though, about 6.30 and we had a
delightful family reunion.

September 4. Friday. Thomas Wolfe, the American novelist
of great popularity, just left. He said a hotel owner and a
friend of his publisher here remarked to him today: '‘All
Europe is going Fascist and that keeps the peace.”

This afternoon I called on the Dutch Minister, who has just
returned from his country. He said soon after I entered his
office* "We shall probably never have another happy day in
our lives. All peoples seem so crazy. The English have com-
mitted the greatest blunders in their history these last three
years.”

He spoke of the Nazi Party Day which opens next Monday

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 355

in Nurnberg. He does not go, as I do not. He agreed that it
would be most disagreeable to sit outdoors in the cold on high
benches near the Fuehrer and hear him or Goering denounce
democracy as they have done each time. I said : It might be
more embarrassing to have to get up and leave when such
things were said. But the Minister reminded me that the repre-
sentative here of Sweden had been ordered by his government
to attend the Nurnberg Congress. He added : “I see the Czecho-
slovak Minister and the Rumanian are also attending.” This
only shows the increasing fear of those little countries of the
Hitler Reich. However, the Dutchman has never attended, nor
has the Belgian Minister. And neither I nor the French or
English Ambassadors has ever accepted these invitations to
witness such propaganda on a grand scale. Neither Mussolini
nor Stalin asks diplomats to attend their party meetings.

This evening’s paper, the Abendblatt^ announces in great
headlines that Mussolini is sending a war vessel, armed, and
several thousand soldiers to Barcelona. This seems to me Mus-
solini’s way of finding out what the French and English will do.
I think they will do nothing. If they do not, later Mussolini
will, in my opinion, send more troops and subordinate General
Franco to his will, perhaps take partial control of Spain — one
more step towards his Caesar goal.

September 6. Sunday. Since nothing of importance can be
discussed or decided in Berlin the next few days, with all high
officials in Nurnberg attending the Party Day, we drove away
about 1 1 o’clock for Magdeburg en route to Holland. It was a
delightful day. At Magdeburg we stopped long enough to see
the famous cathedral where Otto I lies buried, a monument to
his Negro servant standing near his impressive tomb. Magde-
burg was the place where Martin Luther first went to school.

From Magdeburg we drove along the wonderful German
autobahn, a road for cars alone, but eventually for war purposes
too, towards Hanover Hanover is one vast farm area with
fertile hills and valleys, wheat, potatoes, beets everywhere,
harvested or ready to be harvested. Nowhere did I see any
signs of erosion although the land has been cultivated a thousand
years.

356 AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

September ii, Friday About sixty miles east of the Rhine,
we were halted today on a lonely road by a road barrier and a
military man He said soldiers were conducting secret attack
and defence manoeuvres on the road ahead and nobody was
allowed to see the performance. He ordered us to turn back
towards the Rhine. I said we were bound for Rothenberg where
we hoped to be about noon. He said ‘‘No” again, but when our
driver showed him our credentials and curtly said we were
‘‘dienstliche unterwegs’^ (on official mission), he yielded rather
reluctantly. Our chauffeur believed that the officer mistook me
for a general due to arrive from Berlin to supervise the army
show.

During the next hour we saw army trucks, machine guns and
many soldiers. We got caught in a line of tanks and were
unable to move along, all the time fearing that at any moment
the manoeuvres would begin. In the last village we passed
through, the officers had to remove an entanglement of barbed
wire thrown across the road. I was very nervous and felt we
were in the wrong place Other officers stopped us twice and •
questioned us angrily, but let us go on when they learned who
we were and our destination. I was afraid the officer who let us
in first would be arrested. I am still a little fearful that some
sensation may come of it.

September 12. Saturday, As we returned from our week of
travel about Holland, Belgium and south Germany we picked
up Leipzig and Berlin papers filled with articles about Hitler’s,
Goebbels’ and Rosenberg’s denunciations of Communists,
‘‘dominated everywhere,” they said, “by wicked Jews who
intend to rule the world.” It is amazing what these men have
said and how they seem to think Germany and Italy must force
all peoples to join them in overthrowing the Russian system, as
if one country had the right to dictate to others what sort of
government they may have.

At the same time that Hitler talks virulently about demo-
cracy, President Roosevelt addresses an international con-
ference in Washington giving some of the basic causes of exist-
ing troubles in our world. How little good American attitudes
can do ! Hitler knows all peoples are horribly afraid of another

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 357

war and yet he challenges and insults all peoples who do not
submit to arbitrary governments. He thinks he can rule all of
central Europe, as Napoleon tried to do, because everybody is
afraid he will go to war.

September i6. Wednesday, In view of the needs of our govern-
ment to know whether multitudinous newspaper reports as
to German conditions are correct, I asked yesterday to see
Dieckhoff. I was hopeful he might talk more frankly than his
chief. Von Neurath.

When I entered the waiting-room of the Foreign Office, the
most conspicuous thing in the room was a large portrait of
Hitler on the table where guests or diplomats are expected to
sit while waiting a few minutes to be received. This Hitler
portrait is a new thing in the Foreign Office. When I entered
DieckhoflF’s office, I saw another large portrait of Hitler on his
desk by which we were to sit a half hour. I wondered whether
the same portrait is in Von Neurath’s office. When I came to
Berlin the officials in this department of the government were
all friendly to democratic institutions and resentful that in-
nocent Jews were being so roughly treated. They even expected
to be dismissed by Hitler because they were not all Party
members. Now all seems different.

Dieckhoff defended all Hitler had said against other coun-
tries, but said he did not mean to compel the Russian Ambas-
sador to leave the country, as we had heard from reliable
sources. When I asked him about German relations with Spain
he said, “Germany is strictly neutral,” but he at once justified
Portugal’s refusal to be neutral on the ground that the demo-
cratic government of Spain intends to annex Portugal. I told
him I did not believe that. He insisted, and argued for the
Franco army coup in Spain, even approving Italy’s aid to the
army revolt. All that Dieckhoff said showed that he hopes for
a Fascist government in Spain. That is Hitler’s demand, and I
believe Germany is sending aid through Portugal. One day I
think we shall learn that Hitler and Mussolini have advised
Portugal to take this position.

When I asked Dieckhoff about the Locarno conference, pos-
sibly a world peace agreement, he at once said: Yes, we shall

358 AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

agree to participate, but not if Russia is allowed to be there
I said this would keep France from entering the conference,
especially if Germany demanded the abandonment of the
Franco-Russian peace pact of last year. He replied. “We can
have nothing to do with Russian Communists.”

I said : I agree the Communists have been very foolish in
sending propaganda all over the world, but your government
does the same thing. Why do you complain? He replied at
once: “We send propaganda only to German subjects in other
countries. We have a right to consider them our own people.”
I did not tell him what I knew to the contrary in the United
States, Switzerland and other countries. I once replied, at a
dinner, to his remark that Germany must control the Danube
countries: Well, we have millions of citizens of the United
States in Canada, or sons and daughters of citizens. Why should
we not demand control of Canada? Yet not a single prominent
American leader since Champ Clark has made a speech asking
the annexation of Canada. I thought of that conversation today
and I think Dieckhoff did, too. Nearly all Germans, Nazis and
anti-Nazis, regard Germans all over the world, especially in
Holland, Switzerland and the Balkan zone, as their own people
and hope to annex them, even if they must go to war.

From the Foreign Office I went to Unter den Linden in my
car. There I left my car and walked to the Russian Embassy,
in order not to be watched by Germans. I saw the Ambassador
only a short time. He said he did not expect to be withdrawn
because of Hitler’s wild attacks. “These attacks are really aimed
at forcing France to denounce her treaty with us. My govern-
ment has not even asked me to make a protest. Hitler expects
to force England and France to join Germany and Italy in
isolating the Soviet Union.” I am much of the same opinion,
and think Hitler intends to annex the Baltic states that were
formerly parts of Russia, Lithuania, Latvia and Esthonia, the
first time there is a break anywhere, especially if France and
England agree to have the treaty between Russia and France
abandoned.

From the Russian Embassy I walked to see the British
Charge d’ Affaires. He said England would not yield to Hitler’s
demands about Russia, she would insist on a Locarno con-

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 359

ference and once more urge reduction and control of arma-
ments. I can see no prospect of success so long as Hitler remains
the dictator of Germany and hopes to be dictator of Europe.

September 26. Saturday, It is ten days since we summarized
attitudes here and wired them to Washington. Since then, the
Germans have been conducting great army manoeuvres. Hitler
has participated in these operations as commander-in-chief first
of one side, then of the other. The poor German people are
engaged as never before in drilling, marching, rifle practice,
flying and bombing. All Europe is watching with the gravest
anxiety.

Today the Minister from the Netherlands said to me : “We
are all sure that Germany intends to annex our country in due
time, also Switzerland and other countries where people of the
medieval German race lived or left descendants.” I told him
of a recent report that Germany means to get colonies in the
Far East, repeating what Dr. Schacht said about Dutch New
Guinea last spring. The Minister had heard similar reports,
but he said: “We are arming in our Far Eastern possessions as
never before. However, our people, like the English, refuse to
allow universal service and will not prepare for war until one
actually breaks out. They are so opposed to war ”

He was both anxious and pessimistic as he went away, saying :
“Unless your country and England and France and Russia
work together for world peace there is no way to avoid a world
war.” He added that all democratic countries in Europe would
unite behind such a front if it were formed, even Sweden where
Von Neurath said, two years ago, that the Nazis would gain
control in three years. But Sweden in spite of all Nazi propa-
ganda held an election a few days ago and not one Nazi won a
seat in the legislature.

September 28, Monday. This afternoon Consul-General
Jenkins came to tell me the story of the trial of an American,
Lawrence Simpson, before a special Hitler People’s Court for
treason cases, of which there are so many. In April 1935, I
think, Simpson was caught on the American ship Manhattan
with Communist pamphlets in his possession. The police took

360 AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25 , I936

him at once to a local court in Hamburg and he was promptly
sent to prison. In July he was sent to a prison in Berlin or near
by. The Consul had reported the case to the State Department
and had made a protest to German authorities against his im-
prisonment without trial. The German officials declared there
were some seventy Germans co-operating with Simpson and
hence the delay. So nothing could be done.

Now, September 28, 1936, the man was tried with one Ger-
man co-worker. Simpson confessed himself guilty of all that
was charged and he was ordered to prison for sixteen months
more, having been in jail fourteen months already. The Ger-
man-American treaty of 1924 does not contain a clause that
could be applied in Simpson’s behalf. So the Consul-General
could do nothing though he had tried several times to get some
consideration from the German authorities.

The Consul-General repeated the story that Simpson had
refused to accept $1,000 brought to him from New York to
enable him to employ a German lawyer to defend him. Many
stories of the man’s arrest and maltreatment by the Germans
were printed in American papers.

October 2. Friday, During October and November, 1935,
Mussolini was in a dangerous position at home and venturing
upon a war in Ethiopia at great cost. The Italian Ambassador
and his wife, in my judgment, thought he would fail and that
a better system might follow in poor Italy. But the blunders
of France and England gave him victory. Hitler came closer
to the victorious Italian dictator from December, 1935, to
March, 1936, and Mussolini reciprocated. Now both are aiding
Franco to become the dictator of Spain, both having sent arms,
airplanes and men to assist the rebels there. So the Ambassador
marches today alongside German officials, receiving the salutes
of the Hitler army and returning the Nazi salute.

Rust and Ley spoke on Monday evening before an immense
audience, perhaps ordered to attend, announcing that young
people are hereafter to spend seven months of each year in
school, and twelve years, instead of thirteen, in getting their
education. This reveals again the new German idea that parents
have no say as to their children’s upbringing, it becoming a

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 361

government matter. After fourteen, children must drill and
prepare for war during five months, not every day to be sure,
of each year. And at eighteen both boys and girls are subject
to service one way or another for war work, and in labour camps.

October 5. Monday. The debt situation here seems to me
almost impossible to manage even for so clever a financier as
Dr. Schacht. The public debt is 18 million marks, but there is
now a secret debt of 25 billion marks. Arms and army expendi-
ture is counted by the English authorities to be ^^800, 000,000,
the equivalent of 4 billion dollars or 12 billion marks a year. I
can hardly accept the English estimate, but war activities here
surpass anything ever known.

The German Government seems willing to risk everything in
order to compel England to restore her pre-war colonies. There
is much discussion here of a proposed Locarno conference as a
means of restoring the colonies, but the people of all races in
South Africa demand the right to vote what they will do, and
German attacks on all races but Aryans and denunciations of
democracies are indulged in regularly. The result has been
hostile attitudes among all colonial peoples, especially the blacks
of Africa. I can see no prospect of Nazi colonial success now.
A wiser discussion of things might have encouraged honest
efforts on the part of England and France.

October 10. Saturday. The Russian Ambassador called to see
me this afternoon. Although he is exceedingly well informed,
he had nothing to add to my information. He talked about
Russian aid to the Spaniards and about German-Italian viola-
tions of their promises of strict neutrality. I did not doubt the
truth of his charges. The Ambassador condemned the English
attitude of refusing to act upon violations of the Non-Inter-
vention Agreement, but he thought there was no real danger now
of world war. I agreed as to this, but cannot see how universal
war activities, with enormous debts and certain unemployment
a year or two hence, can have any other result than war.

October 15. Thursday I went to the Adlon Hotel this even-
ing to hear what Rosenberg, the so-called philosopher of the

362 AUGUST 7, 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

Hitler regime, might have to say about international relations.
It was the third time I had gone to one of his bierabend affairs.
On my right sat Meissner, private secretary to Von Hinden-
burg until August, 1934, now secretary to Hitler. On my left
sat Rosenberg who directs the rearrangement of all education,
especially history, in German schools and universities. On
Rosenberg’s left was Sir Eric Phipps. Other diplomats and
some navy officers sat opposite us.

The conversation was not revealing except that Meissner
said to me that our former Ambassador here, Schurman of New
York, was in Nurnberg for the grand Party Day. Schurman
had announced in the press here that he would attend the con-
gress, but since no reporter from the American papers saw him
there, I thought he had foreseen a little of what might be said
and hence had not attended the meetings. Meissner said he
talked several times with Schurman whom he admired very
much.

Rosenberg spoke more than half an hour denouncing once
more the Communist system and suggesting that all Western
civilization is in danger. He did not attack democracies. There
was a very large audience, including many representatives of
democratic countries. Perhaps he considered it wise for once to
leave some countries alone. There was at the close some pre-
tence of international co-operation, though Nazi Germany can
co-operate perhaps only with the hated Italians.

October 18. Sunday, As Martha is leaving for the United
States bn Tuesday, Prince Louis Ferdinand, the hopeful pre-
tender to the throne, came to bid her farewell and send greet-
ings to some friends in America. As Hitler says his regime will
continue a thousand years, I do not see how the Hohenzollerns
can expect to be restored to power.

October ig, Monday, We lunched today with Sir Eric Phipps
and, a little to my surprise, Rosenberg was an honour guest,
the same Rosenberg who was compelled in 1933 to leave
England where he had been doing propaganda work. Meissner,
was also present. There was a large company, diplomats and
journalists, some quite clever ones. I had a brief confidential

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 363

talk with Sir Eric about possible co-operation of democratic
countries in financial and commercial matters.

October 20, Tuesday. A few days ago, a New York lawyer
representing a score of claimants against Germany for destruc-
tion of their property before the United States entered the
World War came to see me to ask if I could help him put his
claims before the government. There is no doubt that hundreds
of millions of dollars of American property were destroyed by
German sabotage in the United States or seized by the German
Government in Germany. A commission representing both
countries worked for years on the subject and decided that many
millions must be repaid. The commission ceased its work in
1930. The lawyer wished to get some payments for his clients
out of the $20,000,000 which Germany has placed in the United
States Treasury — ^perhaps a tenth of what had been destroyed.

I wired Washington to know whether I should open the
question with the German authorities. The reply was : Do or
say nothing. But the lawyer went to see Von Neurath and
others in high positions here. He got no promises, but somehow
he formed an impression that something might be done. So
today Captain von Pfeffer, representing General Goering who
was willing to pay some of these claims if the United States
would sell cotton or copper to Germany on credit, offered a
formal document against the lawyer’s claims in all ceremony.
He was in a Nazi uniform and he had a lieutenant with him,
the dignity of his position being thus maintained. I let him
read his document and accepted with formal thanks.

These men were hardly out of the building before the lawyer
came in again to report his difficulties I could not do anything.
I asked him, however : Why did the Standard Oil Company of
New York send $1,000,000 over here in December, 1933, to
aid the Germans in making gasoline from soft coal for war
emergencies? Why do the International Harvester people con-
tinue to manufacture in Germany when their company gets
nothing out of the country and when it has failed to collect its
war losses? He saw my point and agreed that it looked foolish
and that it only means greater losses if another war breaks
loose.

364 AUGUST 7, 1936 TO DECEMBER 25 , I936

October 25. Sunday. Professor and Frau M. had just re-
turned from a two weeks’ visit to their daughter whose husband
lives outside of Germany. They lived at the expense of their
daughter, they said, because they were not allowed to take any
money of their own with them.

Herr and Frau M. began to talk freely about the ^‘sad plight”
of German universities and schools. He said the German
people have been trained so long to be submissive and their
national psychology is such that the present dictator can do
anything he wishes. They all submit, though they are much
opposed to what they have to submit to. He said all universities
are now just about ruined as far as their departments of history,
philosophy, economics and political science are concerned.
He said university subjects are prescribed by incompetent Party
men, and students are instructed to be spies on their teachers.
If a student reports anything that does not please the Propa-
ganda Ministry, a professor is dismissed. No reason is given
for the dismissal. Nothing can be done to change the situation.

The professor is retired on his pension or part-pension and
can never teach, lecture or write again except from a Nazi point
of view. To write a true account of existing conditions is so
dangerous that one dare not do so, even if kept in handwritten
form. He added that what has happened to universities is being
applied to all schools, and that no one can be a teacher unless
he is a Party member.

“Our civilization is being destroyed. If things go on for ten
years more as they have during the last three years, we shall
not recover. We are on our way directly to slavery and bar-
barism.” I remained more than an hour listening to the pro-
fessor’s description of his unhappy countrymen. Soon after we
began talking, Frau M. put a heavy blanket over her telephone
to avoid danger to her husband.

October 26. Monday. All last week Count Ciano, son-in-law
of Mussolini, was here. Such demonstrations from day to day !
The idea of Mussolini is to persuade Germany to give the world
evidence that she would support Italy in her demands that
England recognize her conquest of Ethiopia and then England
would gradually give up her control of the Mediterranean and

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 365

share the control of the Suez Canal with Italy. Von Neurath
had told me a week before that Hitler would not join another
conference of European powers unless England agreed to Italy’s
demands. Unhappy as Von Neurath indicated himself to be
when I came here in 1933, and also in 1934, he is now a complete
tool of Hitler.

The demonstrations went on until the 26th when Ciano saw
Hitler in Munich. What they said no one seems to know, but
I am fairly sure Hitler asked Mussolini to keep his hands off
Austria, and not to interfere when his propaganda leads to her
annexation. Two Caesars cannot easily agree as to the division
of Europe between them.

October 31. Saturday, This is Luther’s Day, but there is not
a word about it in the papers. When I was a student in Leipzig,
the Germans treated Luther’s Day much as Americans cele-
brate July 4. Now, Luther is not mentioned. There has been
instead a three-day celebration of Goebbels’ success in Berlin
ten years ago. Goering made an address in which he challenged
the outside powers and called on all Germans to decrease their
butter and meat consumption in order to add to the number of
cannon Germany is making. On the last night Hitler rushed
into the great palace to thank Goebbels for his ‘‘splendid work.”

November g, Monday, Nothing of importance for a week.
Goering made what was supposed to be an appeal to the Ger-
man people to co-operate in the Hitler Four-Year Plan. He
warned Germans that a food shortage might give some trouble.
Germans must tighten their belts so as to save money for re-
armament. He attacked England shamelessly, although Lord
Londonderry was present as a guest. He said England had
stolen German colonies and robbed Germany of her gold. Lord
Londonderry is reported not to have understood what was
said. He was conspicuous at Goering’s reception the next
day.

According to reports, on January 30, 1937, all German states,
Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria and the rest, are to cease to exist. So
long as Von Hindenburg lived, this was not allowed although
Hitler announced the policy in 1934. It is an unprecedented

366 AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

move to abolish such historic states as Bavaria or Saxony dating
back to the time of the Caesars. Hitler, much as he hates France,
is imitating Napoleon I who abolished all French states.

Ernst Hanfstaengl, who is said to have saved Hitler’s hfe in
1923, is now in Paris. He is a graduate of Harvard- His mother
was a member of a famous Boston Back Bay family, the Sedg-
wicks, but he came back to Bavaria, where he inherited a hand-
some estate. He joined the Hitler putsch business before 1923
and contributed handsomely to the Fuehrer. In 1933 he was ap-
pointed head of a press bureau designed to propagandize Ameri-
can and foreign correspondents. Before we came here he was
counted an intimate of Hitler. In March, 1934, he arranged a
private interview vdth Hitler for me to make a protest for the
President against propaganda in the United States. Later Hanf-
staengl went to the United States to attend an anniversary meet-
ing of his Harvard classmates. Somehow Hitler came to dislike
him, refused to see him any more, deprived him of his office and
left him in a dangerous position.

A few days ago he went to Paris and gave out an interview
about Roosevelt’s re-election which may get him into trouble.
He simply indicated his admiration of the country where he
would like to live if he could take any of his property with him.
I am wondering a little what will be said or done here when he
returns. He is supposed to be very clever. I cannot quite say
whether he is or is not.

November is. Thursday. Yesterday we lunched with the
Swiss Minister. General von Seeckt, who was the head of the
Reichswehr when Hitler seized control of the government in
19335 who was out of sympathy with the Nazis and was
dismissed, was there. He went to China to show the Chinese
how to train an army. Now he is again here with some sort of
position, not so critical of Nazism as formerly.

His wife today said : ‘^Germany was very foolish to allow the
Polish Corridor to be established. Wilson gave the Poles access
to the Baltic but we did not have to recognize it. Now we have
a ten-year treaty with Poland, but we are going to take that part
of Poland in spite of the treaty. Danzig is not a free city. It is
our city.” This supports recent German attitudes which have

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 367

practically denied the League of Nations the right to help Dan-
zig if attacked. It would not surprise me if Hitler made some
challenge next January 30 in connection with annexing Danzig.

This afternoon Carl Albrecht, a cotton importer of Bremen,
called to talk about the possibility of importing some cotton
from the United States. I explained the attitude of Secretary
Hull about lowering tariff barriers in case Germany abolished
subsidies on goods shipped to the United States. He knew of
the matter, having spoken to Mr. Pierson of the State Depart-
ment last August.

Then he talked about our new Consul at Bremen, reporting
what the Consul had said of the Spanish medievalism which
was being corrected by the new government there last spring.
Albrecht then said it was shameful that other powers shipped
arms to the rebels of Spain and prolonged the terrible war. I
referred to the habit of arms manufacturers everywhere to sell
arms to warring countries, even to incite wars.

He said: *‘Yes, last winter when Italy was warring upon
Ethiopia, the head of a long-established German munitions
company came to me and asked a loan to help them sell Italy
shiploads of arms, promising high interest. I was disgusted and
of course refused, but I think they shipped arms all the same.’’
I referred to English and American arms people who did the
same, even when their governments were opposed. He replied
that he was sure munitions makers of all industrial countries
operate in this way and admitted that Germany and Italy are
doing it for the rebels in Spain.

November ij. Sunday, Three times in the last few days the
Italian Ambassador here, who has avoided me since my return
in early August, has approached me to find out what President
Roosevelt means to do through the Latin- American conference
in December in Buenos Aires. As I have had no specific instruc-
tions I could not even intimate anything more than the general
American peace attitude.

Yesterday the Ambassador from Argentina called, pro forma,
but at once began talking about the conference. He said : “There
is great concern among German officials about the American
objectives.” Since he had been received by Hitler two days be-

368 AUGUST 7, 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

fore and had not been at the Foreign Office more than once, I
felt that the Minister’s questions had been suggested by Nazi
oiB&cials who hesitate to ask me about such matters. They know
I am a Democrat and the recent overwhelming vote for Roose-
velt whom they had hoped to see defeated, is really disturbing
to them.

The Argentine Minister said, further, that Paul Scheffer of
the Berliner Tageblatt, who had been visiting Latin-American
representatives here, spent an hour with him. Scheffer had
represented the Foreign Office, he thought, and perhaps the
Propaganda Ministry. He criticized the whole American pro-
gramme in, Latin America, said it was a renewal of the Monroe
Doctrine in its former aggressive shape and that Roosevelt had
no right to influence South American policy. This talk irritated
my Argentine friend who said he was wholly in sympathy with
the President’s peace and commercial attitudes. I have been
watchful of this Scheffer who was a Social Democrat a few
years ago, was several years in the United States as corre-
spondent for the German free press and is now a good Nazi.

The real fear here and in Rome is that the President may
organize all American peoples against Fascist Europe and even
boycott any power that starts another war.

The Hitler way of doing things is revealed in the Berlin
press today. He decreed last evening that all German rivers,
especially the Rhine, Elbe and Oder, are no longer under any
jurisdiction of the League of Nations. Hitler must have known
that Bismarck negotiated a treaty in 1886 under which Dutch,
Belgian and Swiss ships might carry cargoes up and down the
Rhine. Then the Versailles Treaty stipulated that Switzerland,
Czechoslovakia and Poland might export goods through the
Rhine, Elbe and Oder. These countries need such access to the
sea. Since Hitler announces that none of these peoples are to be
deprived of these privileges, actually beneficial to Germany,
why could he not have the Foreign Office call a conference
with the League members and arrive at a general agreement?
But the Fuehrer thinks of himself as the supreme power and
so announces a violation of treaties simply upon his own
authority. It may please the Germans but it is not a politic way
to do things, I look for England and France to denounce this

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 369

sort of practice tomorrow. But they can do nothing. Next
January 30, I suspect Hitler will announce his seizure of
Danzig, '‘his own city.”

Movember 18, Wednesday, A day or two ago reports here
revealed Hitler’s anxiety lest the rebels of Spain be defeated
by the legal government. Our Consul-General in Hamburg
wrote us on Monday that he had been informed that three
ships loaded with arms had been sent from Hamburg recently.
The situation in Madrid must be disappointing to Hitler and
Mussolini who. I’m sure, will do their best to establish a third
dictatorship around France.

A few days ago about twenty German residents in Moscow
were imprisoned as conspirators against the government there.
This might have been expected as a reply to the repeated
attacks of Hitler, Goering and Goebbels. The German Foreign
Office protested, but the Russian Ambassador protested also
because the Germans had arrested Communists in Germany
without proof of anything in the nature of conspiracy. But
what can Communism and Nazism do to each other without
crossing Poland? That would incite Poles, Czechs, French and
even Rumanians to attack Germany.

Today Germany and Italy recognized Franco as the head
of the Spanish people, which he certainly is not. This will prob-
ably mean French, English, American and other democratic
refusals to recognize him. While this goes on, Roosevelt is on
his way to South America where he wiU try to form a solid
front of both Americas against European economic aggression.
Will he succeed? Latin Americans are none too democratic.
The Argentine Minister is Fascist in mentality.

November 22. Sunday. Yesterday the German Government
announced that they were sending a general to Spain as Charge
d’ Affaires to the insurgent leader Franco who has been attacking
Madrid, without success, for three weeks. This Franco had
announced the blockading of Barcelona and had received pro-
tests, not publicly, from England and France, their ships being
in Spanish harbours. Today our Consul in Bremen who spent
several years in Madrid called and reported from friends of

370 AUGUST 7, 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

his in Spain that Franco had become so unpopular that several
towns he had taken in August have revolted and he is too
weak to hold them. This confirms other stories I have heard
about Spanish resentment at bringing the Moors into the coun-
try to help the insurgents. The weakening position of Franco
seems, therefore, to have been the cause of the German-
Italian announcement of their recognition a few days ago and
of the Germans sending a general named Faupel to help
Franco.

In the Embassy office last evening a cable came from
Madrid, signed by Wendelin, our Charge d’ Affaires there. He
quoted a well-known German business man in Madrid as saying
that Germans could not communicate home by wire or tele-
phone and that they were in grave danger of being killed by
Spanish Government supporters. Wendelin asked me to give
his telegram to the German Foreign Office which I did about
8 o’clock. We then wired Madrid that we had done so, but had
no assurances as to any aid to Germans in Spain. Of course
Germany could not do anything, having recognized Franco
as the government.

This news from Madrid was quite troublesome. It looked
like a further German-Italian step towards war. Over the radio
came the news a little later that England had sent a commis-
sion by airplane to Spain to see just what the situation is. France
was reported yesterday to have allowed a regiment of troops
to slip into Spain on the government’s side. Mussolini is re-
ported to have furnished Franco with war vessels under Spanish
rebel flags to help blockade ports. How far can this go with-
out actual conflict^ Am I to be caught here in another Euro-
pean war? When such folly rules European governments, it is
hard for me to venture to represent our government.

This noon we lunched with a wealthy American-German
family! The husband said to me : ‘‘My foreign market has been
sacrificed, but I am very busy making supplies for the German
army. When arming is completed I shall have to close my
plant and dismiss my workers.” I said : That is going to be em-
barrassing, He said, “Yes, but our system allows nothing else.”
He did not go further, but I was sure he was not really resentful
of economic nationalism with war as its objective.

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 37 t

November 55. Wednesday, I was asked this morning to call
at the German Foreign Office. I took Mr. Mayer with me as
a witness to what might be said. We went into Von Neurath’s
office at I o’clock and I remarked sarcastically : I am glad you
have time to see me (having in mind the way he and Schurman
delayed my interview some two months ago). The Secretary
clearly caught my meaning.

Before we took our seats. Von Neurath handed me a copy
of a treaty between Germany and Japan which I had anticipated
and had predicted to be in preparation about two years ago I
read a paragraph or two and said: I hope this is aimed to
prevent war. He replied : 'Tes, that is the meaning, but it is
directed against the Russian Comintern.” I said : You are try-
ing to put an end to propaganda. He said: ‘'Yes.” More than
once he and Dr. Schacht have said to me that they greatly
disliked propaganda. Of course they dislike any but their own.

We left the Secretary in five minutes and met other ambas-
sadors as we came away from the office. All the world is to be
notified through the press this afternoon of the agreement
between Germany, Italy and Japan (the Anti-Comintern Pact)
designed to check Communist activity outside Russia and also
to frighten England and France once more. But my guess is
that this treaty, which surely has secret clauses, contains also a
military alliance of these powers against any other power that
may deny them the right to annex other areas or countries,
especially a promise to attack Russia in case Russia and Japan
go to war in the Far East.

November sy, Friday, The German press has called upon
the people to rejoice at the treaty published yesterday. It is
curious that Von Ribbentrop, German Ambassador to London
and not very welcome there, came by air to Berlin to sign this
treaty and that Von Neurath, the Secretary of State, did not
sign it, nor did Hitler. I suspect the Secretary did not wish to
sign it, also that Von Ribbentrop had worked on the matter
long before he was sent to London. It is Hitler’s way of popu-
larizing Von Ribbentrop who is not liked or respected very
much here.

The Italian press announces today that Italy will enter the

372 AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

German-Japanese pact against Communism. The English and
the French press attack this so-called ‘ 'cultural pact between
great intellectual peoples.’* Having preached for years against
all races except Aryans, the Germans now accept the yellow
race of the Far East as their equals. What would the old Kaiser,
now at Doom, say if he were free to speak? For so many years,
he warned all Western peoples to have nothing to do with
yellow or black races, in spite of the fact that he had an alliance
with the Turks when the World War began.

November 2g. Sunday. Miss Sigrid Schultz of the Chicago
Tribune said today she had talked with the German press
people yesterday and they were angered at Roosevelt’s Rio de
Janeiro speech because he talked about democracies and peace
so frankly. I had read his address as reported in our radio
bulletin. It did not attack dictatorships but it made very clear
statements against the methods of such powers. He implied that
all democratic peoples must unite against aggressors who take
other people’s territory. That is what irritated the German
journalists. Not one newspaper yesterday or today referred to
the President’s address.

December 4. Friday. Today I received a report of a teachers’
convention held near Frankfurt, The government speaker was
quoted as saying: "Only one religion is fit for the German
people and this is the Deutsche Christen. It is time for us to
take care that a Jew bastard out of the House of David is not
forced upon the German people as God. Any teacher who still
talks to his pupils about a life in heaven is not fit to educate
German youth.”

The quotation above shows the drift of Nazi superstition.
This is only another repetition of Von Schirach’s former
speeches and it is practically the same thing as Rosenberg’s
famous book on the Myth of the Twentieth Century^ which has
sold 500,000 copies in Germany. Rosenberg, curious as his
reasoning is, stands closer to Hitler than ever.

December 5. Saturday. Today I saw Dr. Dieckhoff in the
Foreign Office. I indicated to him the general fear of war on

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 373

the part of foreign correspondents as well as many Germans.
Dieckhoff pretended at first that there was really no fear of
this in Germany, I could not agree. He then gave me a chance
to ask for the truth of English newspaper reports that 5,000
German soldiers had been seen landing in Cadiz to help the
Fascist Franco take Madrid. He acknowledged the truth of this
but said they were volunteers to help defeat the Russian Com-
munists fighting for the Spanish Government. He agreed that
the Italians were doing even more and that a general Euro-
pean war was quite possible if the struggle went on. My guess
is that next spring will be the dangerous moment.

When I asked Dieckhoff if Germany would like to see Musso-
lini repeat Julius Caesar’s performances in Spain and France,
he indicated a dislike of Mussolini, saying that Ciano had
pressed for recognition of Franco some weeks ago and that
Hitler had agreed. I asked whether Germany were really satis-
fied with this. He did not say no, but he at once reminded me
of the German suggestion of last August that no volunteers of
any country should be allowed to go into Spain on either side.
If this had been agreed to by the various powers represented
in the London Non-Intervention Commission, then armies and
airplanes might have been kept out. I know neither Italy nor
Germany would keep any such agreement. He said Russia would
not have kept the agreement. I replied that Russia would have
kept out if the others had made perfectly clear they would do
so. However, I said. Fascist propaganda had been going on in
Spain a long time. He did not deny it.

Then he told me that the French and English Ambassadors
here had been with Von Neurath this morning to say that
France and England repeated their demand, made after the
Friday conference in London, to Germany and Italy that these
countries agree to send no more troops into Spain if Russia
and France did the same. I asked him if Germany would
accept. He said the Foreign Office agreed to the proposition,
but he could not guess what Hitler would do. I remarked: You
know Mussolini has taken the islands in the Mediterranean
that belonged to Spain and that he intends to control Spain.
He will not accept the French-English demand. Will Germany
support Italy in this? He did not answer, but I could not

374 AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 2^y IQSS

avoid the feeling that the Foreign Office officials were some-
what nervous about Hitler’s intervention in Spain.

I then asked Dieckhoff what Germany would say if the
Pan-American Conference, now in session in Buenos Aires,
asked for a world peace conference. He indicated his approval
and even thought Hitler might agree in case President Roose-
velt called such a conference. The press here has shown opposi-
tion to the Buenos Aires conference, especially to the President’s
speeches there and at Rio de Janeiro, in both of which he
pointed to the dangerous results of unwise dictatorships assum-
ing the right to conquer other nations. As I have heard Dieck-
hoff say more than once that Germany must control the whole
Danube zone, I felt that Roosevelt’s peace addresses must have
bothered him a bit. But he insisted that Roosevelt’s appeals for
peace, if they turned into a call for a world conference, would
interest Germany and perhaps bring Hitler into co-operation.
My thought was that Hitler will listen only if all democratic
countries including Russia were united against him, and if Japan
agreed also. This I fear is impossible and so the United States,
England and France will be the only hope of saving the world
from another war. Even that will not succeed if Germany and
Italy do not go bankrupt and have serious shortages of food-
stuffs.

December g, Wednesday. Yesterday a Foreign Office official,
talking to Counsellor Mayer, indicated more uneasiness about
war than Dieckhoff showed when I saw him on the 5th. He
reported confidentially, however, that Germany had complied
with the British-French demand (in my mind deceptively).
Germany will keep all troops and airplanes out of Spain, if
Russia and France will do the same. He made no comment
as to Italy’s aid to Franco. I do not believe Mussolini will ever
agree to the demand of the Non-Intervention Commission in
London. The German official said further, ‘‘Germany was not
willing to leave the decision of the Spanish people.” That is
the Mussolini-Hitler dictator idea. They will control Spain.

I have official reports from different parts of Germany on
the subject of general education. All teachers, with one or two
exceptions in the Catholic states, must serve several weeks each

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 375

year in camps where Party leaders tell them what to teach.
German school children once or twice each week through the
year must meet political leaders to learn the great and sacred
duty of Germany and to imitate and follow the Fuehrer. The
young folk everywhere must heil Hitler and show great en-
thusiasm about the German empire and their duty to die for
it at any time.

Boys of ten to fourteen years are organized as Deutsche
JungvolL They wear small knives at their side. The girls of
the same age are organized, and even march in military forma-
tion, as die JungmadeL They wear uniforms according to in-
structions. The boys from fourteen to eighteen are called Hitler
Jugend and wear daggers ready for stabbing an enemy. They
drill and march in the streets and enter the army when called
up at seventeen or eighteen. The girls of the same age are
called Bund Deutsche Madel and are urged to marry early,
bear many children and ask no questions.

All these youths are taught ‘‘true interpretations of heroic
German history.’’ Nobody is allowed to teach the facts about
critical periods when leaders made blunders. All professors in
high schools and universities under fifty years of age must be
in labour camps for four weeks each year to learn political, race
and religious theory as interpreted by true prophets like Dr.
Alfred Rosenberg. Sometimes men with families are excused
and sometimes professors actually refuse to conform. They are
left alone for a while to ponder their misdemeanours. If they
do not submit, gradually they are sent to less desirable positions
or dismissed. In all the universities on which we have reports,
great changes in history, philosophy, social and political science
have been made. Leipzig is perhaps the most completely re-
organized to meet Nazi purposes.

The reports show some resistance in different regions. It
seems not to be successful. A professor at Berlin has recently
been ordered to Jena because he had not surrendered. Strangely
enough, his students insist on going there too. This is a picture
of intellectual Germany.

December 13, Sunday, A great highway system is now being
constructed and extended all over Germany in the hope of

376 AUGUST 7, 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

being able in the shortest possible time to carry German armies
to her frontiers. Dr. Todt, whom I know well and who I think
is not a convinced Nazi, is supervising this expensive building.
No cross roads are permitted on these great autobahns^ or
through highways. Dr. Todt says cars and trucks can travel
just as fast as rubber tyres will permit, perhaps lOO miles an
hour. The roads all begin in Berlin and go directly to frontiers.
One I have seen in East Prussia, another in Hanover leading
towards the Dutch border. They do not go through any big
towns or cities, but go close enough for regiments to get to
them in a few minutes.

Yesterday I saw a clipping from the front page of a Wash-
ington paper attacking me violently as a complete failure here
and pretending that the President is of the same opinion. This
is news to me. The man who wrote the article on the foreign
service situation pretends that the Department has given him
the information. His name is Drew Pearson. I have never met
him when in Washington.

The story asserts that the President and the Department
are planning to have Ambassador Bullitt sent here to deal with
the Nazis because he favours their policies. Bullitt has a curious
history. He went to Russia for Wilson in 1919 He made cer-
tain recommendations on his return to Paris during the Peace
Conference. Wilson could not get consideration of his Russian
propositions, mostly because the English had forbidden Lloyd
George to agree. Clemenceau would not think of allowing the
Russian delegates to come to Paris. This led Bullitt to think
Wilson had refused to consider his scheme, and in August or
September, 1919, Bullitt attacked Wilson before the Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations in a way unprecedented in
American history.

He was sent to Russia early in 1934 as Ambassador, on the
assumption that the Communists had agreed to pay certain
post-war debts and that they would then leave off their propa-
ganda in the United States. Bullitt took a large staff and many
consuls, in spite of the fact that little real work could be done
in Russia until commercial treaties were negotiated. He also
spent huge sums building an Embassy palace and offices, said to
be about $1,000,000, not too much if carefully applied. Not

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936 377

having succeeded very well at the end of his first year, he
became angry. Coming through Berlin in the spring or sum-
mer of 1935, he reported to me that he was sure Japan would
attack eastern Russia within six months and he expected that
Japan would take all the Far Eastern end of Russia.

At luncheon with the French Ambassador, he repeated his
hostile attitude and argued at length with the French for the
defeat of the Franco-Soviet peace pact then being negotiated,
which the English Ambassador reported to me was the best
possible guarantee of European peace. This attitude of Mr.
Bullitt seemed to me to be out of his range because France
and England might think the President was speaking through
him. I felt compelled to report the account as given me by
the French Ambassador. Later, or about the same time, when
the new Italian Ambassador came here directly from Moscow,
we were told that Bullitt had become attracted to Fascism
before leaving Moscow. I understood how disappointed he
must have been at the failure of the Russians to keep their
promises made in Washington in 1934, but I could not see how
an intelligent American could become a Fascist. Perhaps he
was not.

Last September, Mr. Bullitt was appointed Ambassador to
Paris. He has made a good beginning there. But the story goes
that he is on the reactionary side. The Washington newspaper
story says he is in full sympathy with Nazi ideas. This is hard
to believe. However, yesterday Monsieur Marcel Knecht, edi-
tor and owner of Le Matin in Paris, came to see me, reporting
that Bullitt, working for an alliance between France and Ger-
many, had requested him to see me and ask me to advise the
President to lend a hand in this. Knecht convinced me that he
is an able but very conservative man, perhaps a Fascist in
France.

A little while after Knecht left, a telegram from Bullitt
urged me to see and talk with Knecht. Does this mean that the
United States is intermeddling, or that Bullitt is moving, as in
1935, without official instructions? Now, one may really ask,
is the newspaper story true or half true? My position is diffi-
cult, but under such criticism I cannot resign, as I planned,
next spring. To give up my work here under these circum-

378 AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

stances would put me in a defensive and positively false posi-
tion at home.

December i 6 , Wednesday. The information we have had,
official and otherwise, reporting that Germany is willing to
cease sending troops to Spain, is of course untrue. Wherever I
see a German official and the Italian Ambassador they are
in earnest, confidential conversation. Today at the Argentine
Legation it was especially noticeable. When I meet the Italian
now he speaks laconically and shows a positive hostility towards
the United States. Before the Buenos Aires conference, he
made several efforts to sound me out and pretended friend-
ship. Now that Argentina is about to defeat Roosevelt’s
general American peace plan under pressure from Britain, he
resumes his former indifferent attitude While German officials
show a more friendly attitude, I notice evidence that Germany
and Italy are committed to the defeat of the English proposition
to have all countries keep their soldiers out of Spain.

December i 8 . Friday We lunched with Dr. Schacht. Am-
bassador Luther from Washington was present. Schacht pulled
me to one side and stressed the German folly of arming to
the last man. But in public he continues to refer to colonies as
absolutely necessary for Germany, even at the cost of war.
Nothing else was said of any significance, Luther saying noth-
ing at all though he had been reported to have almost de-
nounced Roosevelt and his speeches in Brazil and Argentina.
He had also spoken most bitterly about American limitation
of credits to Germany. How he can complain when Germany
has refused so long to pay her debts to American bankers and
bond holders, I can hardly understand. However, Luther said
nothing unfriendly to me. He is due back in Washington
before Roosevelt’s second inauguration on January 20.

December 55. Friday The German situation continues most
critical. Foodstuffs are being regulated as in World War times
and the poor people are being warned daily that cannon are
more important now than butter They are scared, or supposed
to be, so that all possible sacrifices can be made for armaments.

AUGUST 7 , 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, 379

Even I5 as a diplomat, have to sign a document in order to get
meat from a local grocer. Stores are not allowed to sell to any-
body not listed, and then only limited amounts daily or weekly.
Although we import most of our supplies through Hamburg,
we cannot always be sure we will be supplied, so we must
register like the natives.

What the German people think of all this one cannot be
sure but there are frequent signs of impatience, even anger.
The real trouble with Hitler is that he has not yet got his vast
armies into a condition which would guarantee success in case
he undertook to do what the army officers coaxed the Kaiser
into trying in 19 14-1918.

Hitler agreed with Mussolini in October to recognize the
Franco Fascists as the government of Spain. Both of them have
been sending troops, war planes and arms to Franco since early
August, although both of them entered the British neutrality
agreement about the same time, saying they would not send
men and arms to Spain. But, as already noted, they recognized
Franco when he was thought to be taking Madrid in early
October. Hitler sent General Faupel, who had been a military
propagandist in South America for several years, as his repre-
sentative to Spain. He was to direct military affairs for the
Fascists and Nazis. The people in Germany have not been per-
mitted to know that 20,000 soldiers and technicians have been
sent to Spain.

However, this week Faupel returns to Berlin to tell the
Fuehrer that Franco says he must have 60,000 German soldiers
if he is to overthrow the government there. The reports from
the English press say that Italian troops are not being sent,
according to promises, and that England and Italy are getting
together. Does that mean a lone German conquest of Spain ?
If so, France will be in a dangerous position. In view of this
danger France lets the English know that they plan to send
100,000 soldiers into Spain to defeat the Germans.

This is the present danger of 1936. What will Hitler do?
If he is defeated in Spain his prestige will fall tremendously.
Our reports continue that some German troops have deserted
to the government side when they were ordered to attack Ma-
drid. Hitler’s financial condition does not seem equal to his plan.

380 AUGUST 7, 1936 TO DECEMBER 25, I936

The shortage of food makes his people uneasy. Any loss of
prestige, according to all his boasts, would be contrary to God’s
will. Now he must decide what to do. If he withdraws from
Spain the world will know it, but his own people will only
know about his recognition of Franco. That would leave him
another year to execute another stroke. What can that be? I
wait and watch until my time to retire.

XI

December 2g^ iggS to June 4^ iggy

December sg. Tuesday. I talked tonight with Dr. Schacht.
He joked about a reported shipment of great Douglas bombing
planes to the Spanish Government from the United States. I
had received information that $2,770,000 worth of these planes
were on the way and that the State Department had announced
this was no violation of the neutrality act. When I replied to
Schacht : Yes, but a hundred bombing planes were sold to Ger-
many in the autumn of 1935 for delivery to Italy from the
same American plane factories against the President’s order,
he was silenced. His conversational tone indicated that he knew
about the deal for Italy. He added: ‘‘Well, that was to aid
Italy to extend her colonial realm.”

I asked Schacht then about Germany’s reply to the French-
English demand to agree to keep arms and soldiers out of
Spain. He said: “Germany is not sending soldiers there and
the Fuehrer will soon give a favourable answer. He is as ready
as anybody for peace. The only obstacle to a real settlement is
the English refusal so far to restore our colonies.” Then he
added, “France is ready to restore our colonies any time. I was
assured of this when in Paris representing the Fuehrer last
August. Why does England refuse? We can never have a dis-
armament agreement until we get our colonies.”

He went on to say all Germany’s pre-war colonies were not
enough and a third time reiterated, “New Guinea must be given
us.” I said: The Netherlands owns part of that great island. He
replied: “The Dutch will agree to give us their part. Why
should not England agree?” I told him I had learned from
Minister Gie of South Africa that great difficulties would follow
English cession of colonies and that the populations were much
opposed to a change of ownership. Schacht acknowledged
also having talked with Gie, but insisted he was wrong. I
wonder what lies behind Schacht’s saying that Holland would

382 DECEMBER 20 , I936 TO JUNE 4, I937

not object to Germany’s taking New Guinea. Several times the
Dutch Minister, now on his way to the Far East, has indicated
great opposition to this move.

I then asked Schacht what he thought of Secretary Hull’s
call for world peace in his last speech at Buenos Aires and
whether he thought Germany would enter a new world peace
conference. He replied: am sure world peace is the first

condition to real recovery and I am sure Hitler will agree to
such a peace, but Germany must have her colonies first.”

I could not help remembering that Hitler had forbidden
the Pope’s peace appeal of Christmas Day to be broadcast over
the radio in Germany. However, I asked Schacht to let me
know if the Fuehrer indicated his approval of the Hull proposi-
tion so that I might wire to Washington about the time of
the Secretary’s arrival there. He said he would ask the Fuehrer
in case he could see him. I doubt if there will be any reply,
for I am sure Hitler will denounce the Hull move as soon as
he gets around to it. I did not say the President himself had
asked me to sound out the German Government, for that was
in strictest confidence.

January 5, /5157. Tuesday, Public opinion, as revealed by
the few people who get information from the outside world, is
certainly troubled. The British-French demand that Germany,
Italy and Russia cease sending arms and 'Volunteers” to Spain
was not answered when Hitler came back to attend the funeral
of General von Seeckt. General von Blomberg and other
officers of the army were with the Fuehrer at the funeral. The
generals are reported to have offered serious objection to send-
ing more soldiers to Spain. Hitler is said to have rebuked
them.

In the last days of December, 150 airplane officers and

2.000 S.A. and S.S. soldiers were being sent through Italy to
Spain. This came to me confidentially from Munich. Yesterday,
over the radio from London, we heard that Italy has sent

4.000 troops to Lisbon whence they will go to Franco’s front
near Madrid. Germany must have sent 2,000 more from the
Stettin region. Naturally not a word of this appears in any
German paper.

DECEMBER 29 , I936 TO JUNE 4, I937 383

The American airplane sale, which the State Department
could not prevent under the 1935 neutrality law, involved
$2,700,000 worth of airplanes. As these planes were to be sold
by a private business firm to one of the parties in a civil war,
there was nothing to do. But Germany made loud protests
until leaders here learned that Congress, now gathering in
Washington, was almost sure to stop the shipments. Then the
press rejoiced in this indication that American neutrality means
German-Italian domination of Spain. That is apt to be the case
unless France sends scores of thousands of soldiers and hundreds
of planes to Madrid. If France does that, will Germany
go to war with France? If so, what will Italy do? Hitler will
meet all the diplomats on January ii and we may expect to
hear sharp challenging language about all democracies.

January ii. Monday, At 11.45 ^ the old Reichspalast

where Von Hindenburg lived. All the diplomats were there.
The Frenchman, much troubled about the position of his
country, was busy talking. He showed serious concern. We
waited and talked fifteen minutes before Hitler appeared. The
Italian seemed the least sought after by others. He was as aloof
to me as in August when I returned to my post, and I recipro-
cated. Sir Eric Phipps was as discreet as ever, but he revealed
more sympathy for the Fascist crowd in Spain than I had noted
before. I believe now he is almost a Fascist, as I think are Bald-
win and Eden. The Russian Ambassador was as calm and un-
disturbed as if his country had not been denounced here every
day since last September. No Ambassador or Minister said
anything revealing, although I twitted the Englishman a bit
about their treaty with the greatest Machiavelli of modern
decades. He smiled but would say nothing.

At 12 o’clock the Fuehrer came into the great hall where
forty or more of us stood in a line around the walls. Since the
Papal Nuncio was reported to be ill, the French Ambassador
stood at the head of the line. I was next, the British third, the
Turk fourth and the Russian fifth, according to our length of
service here. The Fuehrer looked somewhat embarrassed as
he came in, red in the face. The Frenchman stepped forward
to read the address of welcome, which the Nuncio had pre-

384 DECEMBER 2 Q, I936 TO JUNE 4, I937

pared, and Hitler faced him. Nothing serious was said or sug-
gested. When this was concluded, the Fuehrer read his reply,
also saying nothing, which rather surprised me since the inter-
national situation is so dangerous. I had expected hints to the
British and French. Not a word. The first paper was written
and read in French; Hitler replied in German. I understood
little of the French statement, but grasped most of the Ger-
man, difficult as Hitler’s German is.

After these greetings were finished. Hitler shook hands with
the Frenchman and the two talked in German in low tones so
that others might not hear them. Hitler speaking a little the
louder of the two. I imagine the Frenchman complained at the
German attacks on France today in all papers because Hitler
alluded to the French press in a slightly critical tone.

He next turned to me and pretended to be very cordial. I
alluded to the unfortunate commercial relations between our
two countries. He turned to complimenting President Roose-
velt on his vast majority and on his constructive measures. I
agreed and said : I am glad you read the President’s addresses.
He said he had done so, but I doubt it. Then I said . I have
recently read Dr. Schacht’s article in Foreign Affairs which I
thought very able ; in the main I agree with all he said. The
conversation closed after a few more words and he turned to
the English representative. I understood nothing that they
said. Hitler went the whole round, even chatting cordially with
the Russian. After the Fuehrer, Secretary von Neurath passed,
giving his greetings and indulging m a bit of conversation.

January 27. Wednesday, Today I received news from Am-
bassador Davies at Moscow that he had told the President that
Dr. Schacht was now even more enthusiastically in favour of
world peace than he was in December when I talked with him.
I had been sceptical in my report to the President, because I
remembered how Schacht had attacked the President and Hull
when I saw him in August.

Ambassador Davies had an important interview with Schacht
just before he left Berlin on January 16. Schacht captivated
him. The essence of the interview was that Schacht urged upon
Davies the hope that President Roosevelt would call a peace

DECEMBER 29 , I936 TO JUNE 4, 1937 385

conference in Washington Schacht proposed that such an
international gathering ought to agree beforehand upon the
subjects and the major problems and their solution. Davies had
some doubts about the willingness of Roosevelt to take the lead

Schacht said that he was authorized by his government to
offer definite terms to France and England based upon the
following points : stabilization of the present frontiers of Euro-
pean countries; establishment of perpetual peace m Europe;
discontinuation of the present arms race; abolition of sanctions,
to be replaced by some administrative machinery which would
permit the members of this proposed alliance to enforce their
decisions ; substitution of a workable agreement between powers
for the present League of Nations

However, the first German stipulation before any such agree-
ment can be discussed or arrived at must provide Germany
with colonies, access to raw materials, and regions open to
settlement and migration, Schacht wa5 certain of the support,
at least in principle, of the French nation, through conversa-
tions he had had with Premier Leon Blum. However, he said
the French Premier had been flatly rebuffed when he ap-
proached the English Foreign Office.

In addition to the interview Davies had with Schacht, he
saw a number of his old friends in the German Foreign Office.
He was impressed with the unanimous opinion among these
men that the question of civil war in Spain was no longer a
threat to world peace. He further gathered the impression that
Hitler was planning a recall of his ‘Volunteers” and technical
experts from Spain. Davies agreed with his friends that the
internal affairs of Spain were questions which should be settled
by Spaniards themselves without pressure from abroad. I have
had so many similar assurances from officials in the Foreign
Office that I am a bit sceptical of the sincerity of these pro-
fessions.

I had received a message from Hull about January 25, inti-
mating that Ilgner, of the 1 . G. Farben trust, also president of
the Carl Schurz Foundation, a propaganda organization in the
United States, had been active in Latin America against the
conference at Buenos Aires, and especially against Hull’s com-
mercial treaties. Ilgner announced m Chile, I believe, that he

N

386 DECEMBER 29, I936 TO JUNE 4, I937

was Schacht’s representative there. All this made me think
Davies had fallen for the Nazi proposals for commerce and
loans. At any rate, I decided to wire my own interpretation of
Schacht’s attitude. He is a hberal in some respects, but he has
no such power in international matters as Davies thinks.

Recently reports have come to me that American banks are
contemplating large new credits and loans to Italy and Ger-
many whose war machines are already large enough to threaten
the peace of the world. I have even heard, but it seems un-
believable to me, that Mr. Bullitt is lending encouragement
to these schemes.

January sg. Friday. I received a telegram from the Chemical
National Bank and Trust Company in New York saying
that Arnold Bernstein, a Hamburg Jew and president of the
Red Star Steamship Line, and four of his assistants had been
imprisoned. The telegram said that their bank had loaned the
Red Star Line $1,000,000 and that the Erie Railroad had
loaned $4,000,000. If Bernstein and his fellows remained in
prison many days, the New York creditors would take posses-
sion of the Red Star ships on which they had a mortgage. Bank
business must go on.

I referred the matter to Consul-General Jenkins and asked
him to call up the consulate at Hamburg and get what informa-
tion he could. The case was not one for our government to take
up because the imprisoned persons are all Germans and because
the Red Star Line is a German company flying the swastika
flag. Yet the arrest interrupted large American business inter-
ests, even throwing men out of employment.

January 30. Saturday. The Fuehrer spoke two and a half
hours today before what he calls the Reichstag. Troubled with
lumbago the last month, I decided not to attend but asked
two of our staff to go and report what was said.

I did go to a tea given by the Crown Prince who had not
invited diplomats to his house in a long time, rarely I believe
since 1934. The party was rather interesting. A large number
of diplomats were there, also German business and profes-
sional people. I spoke with the unhappy Crown Prince a few

DECEMBER 29, I936 TO JUNE 4, 1937 387

minutes, also with his clever son, Louis Ferdinand. They
seemed greatly pleased to think that Americans were friendly
towards the dethroned Hohenzollerns. There has been repeated
talk that there is to come in a year or two an uprising which
will put the aged, exiled Kaiser back upon the imperial throne.
I heard a few days ago that the movement is advancing too fast
and may defeat the Hohenzollern interest. In any case, there was
evidence of much friendliness at the big tea-party at Potsdam.

This is the day when Europeans are all looking towards Berlin
to see if a move is made that signifies war. But the Fuehrer, ac-
cording to reports of our people who heard him speak, was more
conciliatory than he has been since 1933. He said Germany has
regained her equality with other nations, her people are again
contented, and they now only await the return of their colonies.
He knows the other powers will do this but only on condition
that Germany agrees to limit armaments and return to the
League of Nations. He therefore said nobody has a right to say
how many soldiers and bombing planes Germany shall have.
So no agreement as to colonies is likely to be made, in my
opinion.

February 2, Tuesday, We attended a musicale and dinner
given by the Grown Prince at the Esplanade Hotel. There were
perhaps 1,500 people who listened to the music and 200 who
sat down to dine with the ex-Crown Prince. I was at his table ;
my wife was at the Crown Princess’ table. The Grown Prince
told me of his five-year exile on an island in the North Sea. I
had not known he was there so long. He talked of German his-
tory, showing more knowledge than I had expected from former
royalty. He agreed with me that historical writing in Germany
in the next generation is almost certain to deteriorate. He
did not say Party domination was the cause, but he made that
idea plain.

It seemed a little curious to see Madame Schacht bow so low
before the Crown Prince when he greeted her, especially since
the little Nazi cross is so conspicuous around her neck. The same
courtly attitude was revealed by several other government
people and their wives. Schacht was not there. We could not
get away before 12 o’clock. I noticed the French Ambassador

388 DECEMBER 2 Q, I936 TO JUNE 4, 1937

and other representatives of countries all over the world. The
Russian, the Pole, and the Turk were not present.

February 3. Wednesday, We attended the first dinner the
Fuehrer has ever given to the whole diplomatic corps. Many
officers of his government, Goering, Schacht, Goebbels, and
others were there. It was held in the Fuehrer’s new palace,
more elaborate than anything I have ever seen and finished only
a few weeks ago. There were close to seventy-five servants
marching in and halting in military fashion before the tables.
Hitler certainly does not save his people’s money, though he
ate no meat and drank no wine. There were no champagne
toasts, the rule here at big dinners. Personally, I was not in a
position to talk to the Fuehrer, which would have been embar-
rassing to me. I did talk a little across the table to Goering
whose fame in the world, or ill-fame, dates especially from the
firing of the Reichstag building in 1933 and the killings in June,
1934. Of course I could not talk freely with him, being unable
to forget these things. However, I must not imply that Hitler
was not equally guilty.

The great party adjourned from the tables into a large recep-
tion-room where Hitler and Goering stood at one end to receive
greetings and thanks. I noticed the French and British Am-
bassadors were most unrestrained in their apparent happiness.
But Schacht and Goebbels did not hang about the Fuehrer at
all, and Von Neurath only a moment or two. At eleven o’clock
the French Ambassador and his wife departed and the others all
quickly followed. I had expected the party would last until 2
o’clock, but I would not have stayed so long.

I have been out every night for about a week and must con-
tinue to do so for another week This dining until late at night
and getting home at 12 o’clock is very tiresome to me, having to
be in the office rather early every morning and remaining, ex-
cept for lunch time, until 7. My wife must go out almost every
day she does not give a luncheon or tea. She takes much of the
burden from me.

February 12 Friday, I have heard from our Consul in Frank-
furt am Main that the government has forbidden all Jews who

DECEMBER 29, I936 TO JUNE 4, I937 389

fought in the World War to hold any assemblies, although they
have hitherto held veterans’ meetings.

Business firms in that district are to reduce the wages of all
workers in Ersatz plants, making substitute raw materials, by
10 per cent. Perhaps this is to cheapen prices of such goods. In
Frankfurt, three workers have been in prison a year because
they were thought to be associated in some way with Com-
munists. They have just been tried and sentenced to four, six,
and eight years, respectively, in prison.

A few weeks ago Dr. Schacht made a long address on his six-
tieth birthday at a great Reichsbank celebration. I learn today
that Dr. Goebbels censored it sharply, Schacht had said the
1 1,000,000,000 mark debt must be paid. That was not allowed
to be printed. But the debt is certainly four times that amount,
including 3,000,000,000 to United States banks and bond hold-
ers. He also said German circulation of marks has increased
50 per cent since 1933 and he added that the Ersatz industry
must not go on increasing, as it costs about four times as much
as what imports would cost.

February 20, Saturday This is the first evening in a week I
have not been somewhere to dine Last Tuesday, the i6th. Dr.
Sering sat next to my wife at a luncheon we gave for American
bankers trying to settle German debt problems. He started to
criticize severely Hitler’s treatment of universities. My wife
said : 'T did not think you could speak so freely.” He replied :
‘T say what I think. They can shoot me any time they want to.
This system is ruining German intellectual life.” This same old
gentleman is well acquainted in the United States. He said quite
as much to me two years ago, and nothing has been done to him.

Last night we attended a musicale of a Nazi official at the
Bristol Hotel. There were perhaps 150 people present. The
concert was not bad. At the dinner table, my wife sat next to
the Duke of Coburg. I sat near Dr. Schacht who said loud
enough for German officials to hear him: “Mussolini is annex-
ing Spam ; his next move will be to annex Egypt.” I said : I
learn that Mussolini has built a great road from the Red Sea
to the Egyptian border. How did he get the money? Schacht
replied : “Money does not have to be gotten now, we only issue

390 DECEMBER 29, I936 TO JUNE 4, I937

paper and keep it circulating rapidly, thereby maintaining
people at work That is all.” It surprised some people to hear
this from the ablest finance official in the world, but no one
added any remarks. I think the Nazi officials resented this, but
they dared not say anything in his presence.

February 21. Sunday, I went to the old Kaiser Opera House
at 12 o’clock today. Hitler and his chiefs sat where the royal
family sat when I was here in 1899. a memorial service

in honour of the two million Germans killed in the World War.
There was no prayer or religious note. About fifty flags of all
nations were held by soldiers on the stage. After a beautiful
piece of classical music, General von Blomberg, chief of the new
Nazi army, went to the stage and delivered an address which
could not have been delivered in any democratic country.

He did not speak of the war as a calamity due to some
leaders’ blunders. He did say Germany’s plight at the end of
the war was the worst in history, which is not true, though con-
ditions were bad enough. His main objective was to say Hitler
had saved the German people as no other leader had ever done,
to thank him for arming the whole nation, and to bow before
him for his immense wisdom and patriotism. The ‘'Heil Hitler”
ceremony followed, with everybody but myself and a few other
diplomats extending their right hands while the orchestra
played the Horst Wessel song. This is modern Germany !

February 23, Tuesday, Today I talked for about an hour with
Dr. Dieckhoff. I wished to let him know what an unfortunate
effect the failure of Germany to answer the State Department’s
invitation to participate in an economic conference in Washing-
ton would produce. In three whole weeks, no answer has been
received to the invitation presented in January. I also wanted
to mention the effect of the government’s issuing decrees to all
business men not to answer any questions of our Commerce or
Treasury Department officials here about American investments
in Germany. One other object was to learn, if possible, what
German officials really think about the international agreement
to keep all troops and war supplies out of Spain. Finally, I
wanted to know what Von Neurath was doing in Austria.

DECEMBER 29, I 936 TO JUNE 4 , 1937 39^

DieckhofF has seemed to me to be the most democratic of the
men in the Foreign Office, even more so than my deceased
friend. Von Bulow, who passed away last June. DieckhofF is
reported not to be liked by Von Neurath, his chief, but I am
not sure this rumour is correct. He has always seemed to recog-
nize the brutal mistakes made here by the Hitler regime. So I
felt that we might possibly have a real conversation.

He agreed at once that it was a mistake not to answer the
American invitation to participate in the conference set for the
first week in April. The delay, he said, was not due to Von
Neurath’s feeling. It was perhaps due to Dr. Schacht’s attitude,
which he said was not always what Schacht professed it was.
The real objection to acceptance, he thought, was due to the
indifference or hostility of the Labour and Economics Ministries
— that is, Hitler’s men As to the refusal to give any informa-
tion about American investments in Germany, he frankly
agreed with me that it was a mistake. I gave him the dates of
the two almost offensive letters the government had sent, one
to me, the other to our Consul m Hamburg.

As to German-Italian relations, he really said nothing al-
though he talked plenty. He would not agree that Mussolini
intends to dominate Spain, though he had once before frankly
said Germany would not protest if Mussolini annexed Egypt.
His conversation revealed indirectly the doubtful wisdom of
Germany’s alliance with Italy.

As to Von Neurath’s visit, it was only a return formality for
the Austrian Foreign Secretary’s visit here. I was sure it was
more and asked about the reported rioting of the Viennese
people when Von Neurath appeared. He insisted that there
had been only wild Nazi demonstrations and that some of the
uncontrollable fellows had to be arrested to keep them from
doing too much. In my judgment it was all arranged here for
propaganda purposes and the Austrians were expressing their
hostility to the Nazis. Hence the arrests. It is contrary to law
for an Austrian to heil Hitler.

DieckhofF did say that a four-power agreement was Ger-
many’s object, also that Germany wanted control of Austria and
Hungary, but that this would be defeated if a Hapsburg heir
were to be put upon the ancient Austrian throne. Von Neurath

392 DECEMBER 2 Q, I936 TO JUNE 4, I937

was really trying to advance Germany’s aggressive attitude to-
wards domination of the Balkan states. This is in part aimed at
smoking out Mussolini into a revelation of his real attitude
towards the Austrian restoration. Nobody seems to think the
poor Austrian people are free to have the land of government
they wish. Dieckhoff, liberal as he has always seemed to be,
showed again his view that the Danube region belongs to Ger-
many. It is the old Kaiser’s policy, only far more urgent with
Hitler than with the pre-war regime. Europe never recognizes
the natural rights of different nations. Power is the only real
thing.

February 28, Sunday Another week of dinners and luncheons
is past. We were out nearly every night, once with the Russian
Ambassador, where he had forty guests at the table, ambassa-
dors, ministers, and representatives of German officialdom but
no high German official. The dining hall, heated by old-
fashioned German stoves, was quite cold for me, even for the
British Ambassador, although Englishmen at home never have
warm houses. At least, I have never seen any there except
hotels where Americans stay.

March 4, Thursday, Today I talked again with Dr Schacht.
He complained at first rather sharply about the American
newspaper report that Germany’s selling of $69,000,000 worth
of bonds in America, to meet certain interest payments due
to creditors, had increased German debts, two billion dollars of
which were kept secret. Schacht said this false story would
hurt Germany’s credit.

When he emphasized the point, I told him about reports I
had from our Consuls in Latin America to the effect that Ger-
man representatives in Chile, Brazil, and Argentina had done
what they could to defeat Secretary Hull’s peace efforts at the
Buenos Aires conference and that one of the men there had
claimed he represented Dr. Schacht. He asked who it was. I
declined to give his name at that time since the information to
me from Washington was confidential. What Schacht said
made it clear he was thinking of Ilgner’s work there, as I was,
and he did not deny it.

DECEMBER Sg, I936 TO JUNE 4, 1037 393

I then asked Schacht about the possibility of a world peace
conference. He favoured the idea and spoke with much emo-
tion. It seemed, about the danger of war which he said he
always opposed, even the vast appropriations here for arma-
ment. He said Hitler was against war and had urged peace or
armament reductions. I did not mention the many times Hitler
had said such things and then proceeded in the opposite direc-
tion. Schacht then said arms manufacturers were the people
who had defeated peace efforts since Wilson’s attempts in 1918,
and who had also defeated the League of Nations negotiations
on the subject every time they were undertaken.

He repeated his hope that Washington might have a prelimi-
nary conference looking towards world peace and practically
asked me if Hull would like to have him over there for discus-
sion. In case he were invited to go, he would persuade Hitler to
agree to having a peace conference, get him to accept his idea
of substituting freer world trade for war preparations, and ob-
tain a real peace agreement among the four important nations :
Germany, France, England, and the United States. I consented
to speak of this in a telegram to Washington, What he said
about Hitler’s recent speech on seizing business men’s property
and one by Von Ribbentrop in Leipzig relative to German de-
mands for colonies, surprised me a little. He said both speeches
were bunk, intended for local consumption, but both harmful
abroad.

Then I went to Secretary von Neurath. He said ' ‘'No war is
likely.” I answered that arming to the last degree by all nations
was most dangerous. He admitted as much but laid the blame
on England. I reminded him that England was the last of all
the nations to arm. He could not deny this, and then said
munitions manufacturers had really been responsible for the
dangerous armaments of European countries.

When I asked about the Spanish situation, he bluntly said :
"We shall never allow the present government of Spain to win
the civil war. It is Communism and we shall never allow that
in any European state.” That contradicted the peace idea with
which he began. I said : Do you feel that no other nation has
a right to govern itself, even foolishly? He said : "No, not when
it involves Communism. If that happened in Spain, France

394 DECEMBER 20 , I936 TO JUNE 4 , I937

would turn Communist and then attack us.” I had not
forgotten DieckhofF’s statement about Von Neurath’s visit to
Vienna where he protested against Austrian restoration of the
Hapsburg monarch. That was not a Communist move, yet the
Nazis insisted it must not happen. These Germans, even those
who are considered liberal, seem to me never to think about
the rights of smaller nations.

When I raised the question of a possible world peace confer-
ence, he at once said : ‘‘No, it cannot be successful.” This was
the opposite of Schacht’s idea. His plan was to make nations
more prosperous by gradual disarmament and spending of
money in other directions. But when I repeated the danger of
continued rearmament for all nations. Von Neurath agreed
again. I left him, convinced that his former half-liberal atti-
tudes had been practically abandoned.

These conversations, especially that with Von Neurath,
revealed more clearly than formerly that the German Govern-
ment is now determined to control, and actually annex, neigh-
bouring countries. The Balkan states are theirs, the Mediter-
ranean states are Mussolini’s. Official pronouncements over the
radio from Rome give strong evidence of an agreement to these
ends, although the German and Italian peoples dislike each
other almost as much as the French and Germans.

March 6, Saturday. Yesterday the German press attacked and
denounced Mayor La Guardia of New York for a remark he
made about an exhibit in the World’s Fair building next year,
in which a bust of the brown-shirted Hitler should be erected,
the exhibit to be called the Chamber of Horrors. The Volkischer
Beobachter and the Angriff, official papers, went the limit in de-
nouncing La Guardia as a terrible Communist, racketeer, and
whoremonger, Jewish they said. They even attacked the United
States Government for allowing such a speech, unaware, it
seems, that free speech is the law of the American land.

I telegraphed a summary of what was said, but have made no
protest until I receive instructions. Unhappily for Dr. Schacht,
this comes at the time Secretary Hull authorized Ambassador
Luther to telegraph Berlin that he hoped soon to be able to
arrange a treaty with Germany for better commercial terms . This

DECEMBER SQ, I936 TO JUNE 4, I937 395

is the third time this sort of thing has happened here just as
some negotiations were under discussion in Washington. In
1934 Hitler published a statement that nobody was to be
arrested and imprisoned — -Jews especially — except upon due
process of law. On March 6 of that year he loudly declared to
me that any German who started propaganda in the United
States would be pitched into the North Sea. Before I returned
on May i6, 1934, both these promises had been violated,
Goebbels making a terrific speech against the Jews while I was
on the Atlantic. On June 30, 1934, hundreds of opponents and
many actual supporters were murdered upon Hitler’s order
without trial or evidence of anyone’s guilt. How could Secretary
Hull urge a treaty to be adopted by the Senate that year?

In June, 1935, when a deal was being negotiated in New
York for bank credits so that Germany could buy ^35,000,000
worth of cotton, Goering made a violent denunciation of Catho-
lics. At once it caused the banks to refuse credit, and cotton could
not be had. Goebbels followed a few days later with another
denunciation of the Jews. So another Nazi defeat in trade
resulted.

On March 4, Schacht asked me to telegraph the government
how glad he would be to go to Washington in the hope of
negotiating a trade arrangement and told me he expected to
carry Hitler’s approval of a world peace conference. The next
day these violent newspaper scandals broke. La Guardia being
popular in America. So another blunder !

March g. Tuesday. Two priests from a monastery in Bavaria,
built by American Catholics, came to see me this morning. The
German district leader had forbidden them to speak or read
the Bible in their monastery or church rooms. They could not
understand this when their salaries were paid from the United
States, but they feared that, if they should speak or read the
Bible, they would be ordered out of thfe country. If they went
away, their monastery which cost American contributors
300,000 marks would be taken over by the Nazi Party.

I could do nothing for them but advise caution and a visit to
our Consul-General who might possibly help them. This is the
second case of this kind brought to my personal attention. Con-

396 DECEMBER 20 , I936 TO JUNE 4 ., I937

sul Jenkins reported to me that all he could do would be to
give the facts to the Secret Police chief and persuade him that
such a move would be harmful to German interests. However,
the ownership of property by foreigners in Germany is entirely
under the control of the Nazi Party.

March 12, Friday, Max Jordan, N.B.C. representative in
Europe, called and reported that the opinion of press people
and radio managers at homefavours Roosevelt’s judicial reform
which is now being so hotly discussed. In spite of editorial con-
trol and big business influence, both reporters and workers all
favour Roosevelt’s plan. He said the Senate strongly opposed
him, but the majority would vote for the measure. I hope so.
If they defeat the President, his second term will be like Theo-
dore Roosevelt’s second term — argument and pressure for re-
form, without success. Only Franklin Roosevelt’s defeat would
be much worse and more dangerous because his majorities have
been overwhelming in three Congressional elections, surpassing
anything since Jefferson, who was also defeated in his major
purposes except for the purchase of Louisiana.

Jordan then talked of German popular attitudes as revealed
to him by a journalist whose name he dared not give. He said
many airplane accidents and deaths had occurred this winter
but not a word of them was allowed in the press. Only one case
was reported : the accident a month ago in Berlin which could
not be kept secret because it occurred in a busy section of the
city, five people being killed. The reason for keeping all such
accidents secret is to prevent young people from being discour-
aged, as so many thousands are ordered regularly into air
service. I had known this was a rule of the government for
more than two years

He then said he was informed that some fifty soldiers were
ordered to go on an unknown mission from Hamburg. They
were forbidden to tell Iheir parents they were going out of the
country, to Spain, but some of them spoke of it. A meeting of
parents was held in the town near where the soldiers received
orders. The Nazi local officials arrested and imprisoned all the
parents, for how long Jordan did not know. He added that a
number of the soldiers committed suicide rather than go on the

DECEMBER 20 , I936 TO JUNE 4, 1937 397

secret journey. If this is correct, it means something serious for
Hitler and Goering to think about.

This afternoon at 5.30 I went to the German Foreign Office,
Mr. Lee with me, to make the protest Secretary Hull cabled me
from Washington against the shameful German press attacks on
February 4, 5 and 6 against the women, the people and the gov-
ernment of the United States. Knowing the motives of the Nazi
officials, Goebbels and Rosenberg, also Hitler himself, I could
not expect any real regrets even from Secretary von Neurath,

I told Von Neurath, who showed himself a little embarrassed,
what a blunder the Germans had made. He acknowledged this,
but said he had stopped the extreme vituperation of the Angriff
articles from being published in other German papers. I then
had Mr. Lee read Secretary Hull’s protest and showed Von
Neurath several other German papers which had reprinted
what the Angriff had said. He could not deny what had hap-
pened and he agreed with me it was very stupid, though he
pleaded in excuse that some American papers had attacked Ger-
many violently during the last four years. He could not justify
present-day German folly. The conversation ended. I was sure
Von Neurath, even if he had wanted to, did not dare apologize
as Hull had done for La Guardia’s ridicule of Hitler, and that
he would really not say anything to the Fuehrer or Goebbels.
They are incorrigible.

March 15. Monday This afternoon I learned that Ernst
Hanfstaengl, long a close supporter of Hitler and chief of the
Nazi foreign press office, was ordered about February 20 to
close his office and go to Valencia, Spam, on some mission I
was to have had lunch with Hanfstaengl on February 22 and he
informed me he had to leave Berlin. A close friend told me to-
day that Hanfstaengl went to Munich, his home, did not go to
Spain, and has since disappeared. I hear he is in a concentra-
tion camp and in danger of losing his life. He has not been seen
by Hitler m two years or more and I have noted at the Carl
Schurz luncheons that he was rather free in criticizing Goebbels
and others in the regime. I never ventured frank talk with him
after the summer of 1934. Since he gave much money to Hitler
in 1923, helped him write Mein Kampff and was in every way

398 DECEMBER 2Qy I 936 TO JUNE 4 , 1037

familiar with Hitler’s motives, he would be an unreliable man
out of Germany. What a book he could write !

A report today reveals that the Germans and the Czechoslo-
vaks have negotiated a treaty for mutual good relations, Benes
having agreed to treat all Germans in his country as well as the
Czechs themselves, but that now Hitler denounces the agree-
ment. He can allow no treaty with any people who have an un-
derstanding with the Russians. In view of this, I put no faith
in the recent German offers to negotiate a new Western four-
power pact. His first demand will be to forbid French relations
with Russia. The basic point of these moves is that Germany
will have her own way as to the boundaries and status of the
Balkan states and the right to annex them when she thinks the
time ripe. That is the Mein Kampf doctrine.

I wrote Messersmith, our Minister in Austria, a few days ago
that the best and perhaps the only guarantee of world peace is
for all the Balkan states to form a co-operative confederation
ready always to help one another. That would be a union of
80,000,000 people. Germany would have to think twice before
she moved against such a union. I suggested he talk this over
with Schuschnigg. European nations have practised war since
the fall of the Roman Empire; what might not civilization have
become if peoples could have learned the basic principles of
Christianity which all Western peoples have professed super-
ficially for a thousand years !

March ly, Wednesday, Today Dr. Dieckhoff asked me to see
him at 6 p.m. I went. The Secretary seemed troubled as we
shook hands. He began at once to talk about another La
Guardia speech made in New York. He seemed to have been
instructed to insist that I tell President Roosevelt or Secretary
Hull to stop the New York Mayor from criticizing Hitler Since
Dieckhoff had been Counsellor to the German Embassy in
Washington from 1924 to 1929, or about that time, I could not
see how he could ask such a thing seriously. Of course I replied,
No, that can’t be done ; you know that freedom of speech and
the press are guaranteed to all our people. He knew that, he
said, but hoped something could be done anyway.

When he had talked a little further about our press criticism,

DECEMBER 29, I936 TO JUNE 4, I937 399

I said: You know our people were friendly to the German
people after the World War ended, far more than to France
because the French Government refused to disarm. He said
that such an attitude was very clear to him when he was in
Washington, but why were Americans so hostile now? After
some discussion we parted company, both quite aware nothing
can be done in the United States or in Nazi Germany to better
relations.

March 30. Tuesday. It’s a long time since I made my last
notes. I have attended dinners and lunches often enough. Two
of them were a little revealing. On March 18, we were at the
home of the former Foreign Secretary, Von Kuhlmann. He
had served under the Kaiser in 1918 and supported the Kaiser’s
attitude towards the Brest-Litovsk negotiations, but he was
defeated by the generals of the army who demanded vast
annexations. Since we have been here we have seen him
occasionally.

At his dinner were twelve or fourteen guests The British
Ambassador talked to Von Kuhlmann about Spain as if he were
a sincere supporter of the cruel Franco, although he formerly
talked to me as if he were staunchly opposed to Franco. The
latter, I suppose, was a diplomatic attitude for my benefit. Dr.
DieckhofF was present and talked like an opponent of his
Fuehrer. Other people spoke equally freely. One eminent man
said to my wife: ‘‘There is no use of our always talking about
conquering territory on our eastern frontier; eastern France
must be annexed to Germany, especially as the French popula-
tion is declining.” This reminded me of the French Ambas-
sador’s statement to me in 1933: “We must annex German
territory to the Rhine. Wilson defeated us in this.”

From the Von Kuhlmann dinner I went to the eightieth
birthday dinner of Dr. Sering. There were some hundred guests
present, including Dr. Schacht and other officials whom I had
met frequently. I was late and so did not hear the speeches
made by Sering and Schacht, but I was told they had done
what is most dangerous here — criticized the Nazi policy and
German military activity. I knew both of them thought that
way, but was surprised to hear they had felt free enough to talk

400 DECEMBER 20, I 936 TO JUNE 4, 1037

before a large group of people. Schacht said to me:
position is very critical ; I do not know what is to happen.”

There was a Cabinet meeting on March i0 and Schacht is
reported to have challenged Hitler’s Four-Year Plan in some
of its items. But nothing has happened and Cabinet decisions
are reported all in favour of Hitler and Goering.

The Catholic priests or bishops read an encyclical from the
Pope, on March 21, in all their German churches. It was a
warning to the Catholics to keep their faith, a protest against
Hitler’s efforts to destroy the Catholic Church, and an appeal
for religious liberty. Religious liberty proclaimed by Catholic
leaders upon the order of the Pope ! Not a word of this papal
message was mentioned in the press, but copies were published
in England and other countries, many people here learning in
this way what had happened.

Today I visited the Papal Nuncio, hearing that he was well
again after a long illness. I congratulated him on what the Pope
had done in proclaiming religious liberty in a Europe where
religious liberty is absolutely denied, and especially because the
aged and half-ill Pope seems to me to show real courage even
under the nose of Mussolini. The Nuncio was most delighted
and insisted that the great Cathohc Church is really struggling
for religious freedom now everywhere, even in Mexico. I spent
a half hour with him and he told me that thousands of copies of
the Pope’s message were distributed by hand all over Germany;
he did not know if anybody had been arrested.

April 3, Saturday, The Czechoslovak Minister came to the
office this morning and talked more than half an hour. I had
asked to see him at his house, but he insisted on coming to see
me. I asked him about Balkan relations, a subject about which
I wrote our Minister in Vienna a month ago. He said that
Yugoslavia’s treaty of recent date with Italy was a strong move
in the direction of peace, that it was designed by Italy as a
means of food relief in case of a possible war with England.
And, he added, Yugoslavia is now much closer to Austria, but
she will not think of consenting to the restoration of Otto, the
Hapsburg heir, to the throne.

He then said a similar treaty between Rumania and Russia

DECEMBER 29, I936 TO JUNE 4, I937 4OI

has just been agreed to, which means recognition of boundaries
and co-operation between these countries for peace. Of course I
had heard about the treaty but was not quite sure what it meant.
He said the two arrangements, the Yugoslav-Italian and the
Rumanian-Russian, were important steps towards co-operation
and peace among all the Balkan states. Now Czechoslovakia
and Germany must come to a similar agreement as to boun-
daries and national minorities. Then the Balkan states would be
reasonably safe and mutually helpful, Austria and Bulgaria and
Hungary each being pressed to co-operate with the so-called
Little Entente. His only anxiety was on his last point, an under-
standing between Czechoslovakia and Germany. Propaganda
was going on, emanating from Germany, every day against
the one democracy in this part of Europe. He showed also
some anxiety about a possible Hapsburg restoration, unwilling
to allow this although Austria seems to ask it as a right.

April 7. Wednesday. Yesterday evening the Czechoslovak
Minister at our dinner told me he had information that Luden-
dorff has an organization of young Germans who hate Hitler,
also that considerable groups of the German army are co-operat-
ing quietly with the Ludendorff youth movement, Ludendorff’s
bi-weekly magazine going to them regularly. General von
Blomberg, Commander-in-Chief and War Minister, learned of
these facts and managed to get Hitler and Ludendorff to meet
and talk in Munich, the excuse being Ludendorff’s seventy-
second birthday on April 9. The Minister wondered what this
really meant. Perhaps we shall learn more two days from now.
Today I heard that Ludendorff ’s magazine has been confiscated.

Secretary Lee of our staflF today reported that Ambassador
Luther, who has been recalled from Washington, was reporting
two years ago to the German Foreign Office about Huey Long,
the would-be American dictator. Herr K., now retired from the
Foreign Office, had read the reports which Luther had been
ordered to make. He did not reveal the contents but he did say
to Lee that Luther had visited Louisiana and Huey Long more
than once. I wonder whether our government in Washington
has ever heard about this. I hope to learn just what was said
about Huey Long, also about his death.

402 DECEMBER 2 Q, I936 TO JUNE 4, I937

The twenty or more guests of yesterday were disposed to talk
more freely than diplomats and German officials generally do.
Some distinguished Germans criticized the Hitler regime most
severely — a habit that is getting to be quite common again.
What does this mean? Or do they think a democrat likes to
hear this?

April JO. Saturday. On Thursday I talked a half hour with the
Russian Ambassador. He spoke of having dined on March 20
with the nephew of General Goering, who is an official in the
Reichsbank. Others present. Prince Louis Ferdinand told me,
were the French Ambassador, Dr. Schacht and Prince Louis.
The Soviet Ambassador did not admit that there are negotia-
tions now going on for a secret treaty between Germany and
Russia. I had heard this from our Minister in Norway this
week. The Russian Ambassador announced that he had just
returned from Moscow and that he goes on April 20 as Am-
bassador to France.

On Friday night, I heard from Walter Duranty, New York
Times correspondent in Moscow since 1921, that secret negotia-
tions are on between Germany and Russia. Another rumour.
I think something is on, but feel it is merely a commercial
arrangement. How could Hitler make a political treaty with
the Communists?

This morrdng at 12 o’clock, the British Ambassador came to
say farewell. He is leaving April 16 for Paris where he is to
serve the next few years as Ambassador. When I told him of
the three stories I had heard about German-Russian negotia-
tions, he showed a good deal of concern. I told him I was not
convinced, but that it seemed that something was on. I had the
feeling he wanted to telegraph what I had said to Downing
Street at once.

April II. Sunday. A confidential report from Frankfurt re-
veals some other aspects of German life to me, but not a word
on these subjects appears in the German papers. Great crowds
of church people met in their churches between March 31 and
April 4. At the city of Darmstadt, the Nazi Black Shirts and
Brown Shirts, opposed to religious activity except in the Party

DECEMBER 20, I 936 TO JUNE 4 , 1037 4 O 3

churches Rosenberg’s semi-barbaric religious cult), gath-
ered in great crowds about the principal church and arrested five
pastors on account of their sermons. In the Frankfurt district,
thirty-seven persons were imprisoned for Bible study meetings
and thirty are still in jail. No charges were made. The Nazi
district leaders ordered this and imprisoned people without trial.
These victims were simply Protestant worshippers who perhaps
made it plain that they will not change their religious beliefs.

In the Catholic Saar area, a crucifix on the wall of a denomi-
national school was ordered to be taken down at Easter time.
A picture of Hitler was put in the place of the crucifix. The
parents whose children attend this school objected strongly and
some of them kept their children at home. The parents were
fined and some fathers were dismissed from their positions.
When the people were called on to vote whether all denomina-
tional schools should be closed, they voted 97 per cent in favour
of abolishing them. But the general feeling all over Germany
is that the people must all vote one way when any election
takes place. If they vote their own convictions, imprisonment
is expected.

At Stuttgart, a former liberal city, an American traveller who
took photographs of an ancient village near by was arrested
March 30. No one may take photographs without government
permission. When the local authorities found they had arrested
an American spending money in Germany and utterly unaware
of this stringent law, they released him, after two hours in
prison.

A report last Friday from Panama says 500 German Chris-
tians passed through the great canal on their way to tracts of
land which the Columbian Government had given them. Were
these emigrants escaping their country to seek religious free-
dom? Some people here say 10,000,000 would go if they could.

Yesterday afternoon, April 10, there was real sunshine, so
promising that my wife, daughter and I went for a two-hour
drive into the famous Spreewald region south of Berlin. Half-
way out there was a vast military field with elaborate barracks
running nearly a mile along the left side of the road. The
forests all the way showed immense cuttings, done under the
Four- Year Plan about which Goering speaks so often. The

404 DECEMBER 2 Q, I936 TO JUNE 4, I 937

wheat and barley fields seemed in better condition than I had
expected after so much bad weather. It has rained almost every
day since October i . The old town of Spreewald reminded one
of the late Middle Ages, but the people appeared healthy and
were better clad than some people I used to see in large sections
of Chicago where wages were always twice as high as here.

April 13, Tuesday, Yesterday Mrs. Peters, author of a book,
Roosevelt and the Kaiser^ called and told me about an Iowa
man here who pretends to be an advanced student. He is an
agent of the Nazi-American organization headed in Detroit by
a certain Fritz Kuhn who raises money and helps the man here
by giving him contacts with the Propaganda Ministry and
with Hitler. She said he attacked me freely for not being a
Nazi co-worker. I asked her to see the man again and learn
just what he does.

April jj. Thursday, American churches are beginning to show
movies revealing what Germany does to Catholics and Pro-
testants who contend for religious rights. The German papers
have begun again their hostile articles criticizing the freedom
of church people in the United States, but they are not so
vitriolic as early in March when the La Guardia attack on Hit-
ler was made. They affect not to understand such freedom and
wonder how a people for whom Von Steuben fought during
their Revolution can be so critical of the country from which
Von Steuben came. They do not seem to know that Von
Steuben was sent to America by revolutionary France.

The press also speaks similarly of Carl Schurz, never inti-
mating that Carl Schurz was imprisoned here for his love of
freedom and escaped through France to the United States
where he fought the rest of his life for democracy, so denounced
in present-day Germany. Their persecutions are quite as severe
as those of the sixteenth century, except as to actual deaths.
Hundreds of preachers have been imprisoned for teaching
Christianity.

April ly. Saturday, The German Official Gazette of April 14
came to my attention today. It lists ninety-one Germans who

DECEMBER 2 Qy I936 TO JUNE 4, I937 405

have been deprived of their nationality. Ludwig Renn, author
of a famous book against war, is the most prominent denational-
ized person on the list. Many others are children of opponents
of the Nazi party. One of these children is only two years old.

At the same time, information comes that members of the old
German aristocracy have been arrested because they are re-
ported to be monarchists, active for restoration of the royalist
regime. Stricter observation and punishment of Jews is evident.
They cannot hold meetings of any sort, except church service.
They cannot play tennis, football, enjoy river sports, canoeing
or swimming. This ancient realm of religious liberty is be-
coming a terrible autocracy. Perhaps one-third of the masses
are enthusiastic for a system which denies every man his
personal liberty.

April 20. Tuesday Yesterday afternoon George Lansbury,
English Labour leader and peace agitator, spent two hours with
Hitler I think the visit was manoeuvred by Von Ribbentrop
to encourage pacifist and peace sentiment in England, thereby
weakening the pressure for increased armaments, perhaps also
to confuse French-English relations.

We had given a luncheon to the Russian Ambassador who is
leaving soon for Paris and I was not at the Embassy promptly.
The I.N.S. representative, the very able William Shirer, called
me as I was about to leave for Potsdam to visit the old Fred-
erick II mansion, and told me that Lansbury said to him that
Hitler spoke highly of President Roosevelt and argued that if
Roosevelt called a world conference for peace, he. Hitler, would
co-operate. I was sceptical because Schacht and Von Neurath
had both said on March 4 that no conference should be called
until economic agreements among the greater world powers
were made. I called the Embassy and asked that a telegram be
sent to Washington. I had mailed Roosevelt a careful letter
that day in which I analyzed the situation here, indicating
especially the anxiety about war. The defeats of Franco in Spam
have done much to check Hitler’s belligerency temporarily.

Today I had the disagreeable duty of sitting in the cold,
outdoor air on a platform in the Berlinerstrasse, opposite the
famous Technical College, and watching along with the rest of

4o6 DECEMBER 20, I 936 TO JUNE 4 , 1037

the diplomats the great military parade in honour of Hitler’s
forty-eighth birthday. In spite of the peace avowals which had
been made yesterday and all the lessons of the terrible Spanish
conflict, Hitler stood on a platform for two hours watching
15,000 soldiers go by and reviewing millions of dollars worth
of war machines of all kinds. I have never seen such a huge
military demonstration in my life.

The whole of Germany was allowed a holiday and in Berlin
hundreds of thousands of people were marching the streets to
pay tribute. Children were everywhere conspicuous. Although
many distinguished people seem very much opposed to the
Nazi regime, there seemed to be nothing but enthusiasm today.

The diplomats were not all of approving frames of mind.
The French Ambassador, whose country did most to start Ger-
many on its military course, seemed miserable, although a part
of his fortune had come to him from huge sales of arms during
the early Hitler regime. The Turkish Ambassador, in spite of
the dictatorship in his country, was depressed to see what vast
equipments Hitler chose to show us. Some Latin American re-
presentatives showed disgust. It was, of course, most depressing
to me to be reminded for two hours how all European powers
had abandoned Wilson’s urgent recommendations ofi0i8-i0i0.
The League of Nations, which promised so much, is ruined. As
I looked at Von Neurath, who sat near me, I thought his face
revealed distress, and when we were leaving and shook hands
with Dr. Schacht, he revealed much unhappiness. It was to him
about the same as it was to me. I shall not attend another Hitler
birthday celebration if I am in Berlin next year.

April 22, Thursday. On Tuesday evening General Goering,
reported to be ill, hurried off to Rome where he is to see Musso-
lini on his way to southern Italy for a supposed rest cure.
Hitler went by flying machine to Munich where another mili-
tary demonstration was given him on the 20th. There was also
an exaggerated Party speech by Hess who said that the Fuehrer
is the modern Jesus.

Talking with the Czechoslovak Minister, I learned that
Goering told him some days ago that several attempts to mur-
der Hitler had been thwarted this year. I received a telegram

DECEMBER 2 Q, I936 TO JUNE 4, I937 407

this morning from Washington announcing that the young Jew,
Helmut Hirsch, who had been condemned to be executed be-
cause he was accused of trying to murder the famous, or rather
infamous, Streicher of Nurnberg, is an American citizen. That
makes it necessary for me to visit the Foreign Office and insist
that justice be done and that real evidence of the crime must be
produced, with punishment meted out according to law.

April 25. Sunday. The German papers feature the meeting of
Mussolini with Schuschnigg, the Chancellor of Austria, on
Friday, April 23, in Venice. There is to be no growth of the
Little Entente in the Balkan zone except under the supervision
of Mussolini and Hitler. This reopens the severe problem about
which Ministers from Austria and Czechoslovakia have talked
hopefully of late. Mussolini will not allow these two countries
to make a defensive alliance. He will not now permit a Haps-
burg restoration although he had for three years promised to
invade South Germany if Hitler tried to invade Austria to stop
the Hapsburg movement. Now Germany and Italy are forming
a solid front against the East as well as the West. The Haps-
burg claim is the easiest excuse for Mussolini ; the Balkan coun-
tries are sharply divided on this issue.

Tomorrow Goering, who went to Italy on the 20th for his
health, sees Mussolini, I think to counteract any influence
Schuschmgg may have had. On May 3, Von Neurath goes to
Rome. There is some bargaining about Spain, too. Italy wishes
to annex Spain, or at least control it, but for the last month
things have not been favourable there. What will Von Neurath
say for Hitler? My guess : If you guarantee us Austria, we will
guarantee your influence in Spain if England continues her two-
faced policy. The idea of Italy and Germany is to extend their
power by threats of war, to hasten this business before England
is fully ready and also before Poland, now uneasier than ever,
unites with Rumania and the Little Entente. The Foreign
Minister of Poland is now in Belgrade to negotiate, they say, with
Rumania. If Hitler and Mussolini go to war there will be in-
surrections of their peoples. If the Balkan states form a union
for self, and mutual, defence, Hitler and Mussolini will have to
stay at home In case the Spanish Republicans win the struggle

408 DECEMBER 20, I 936 TO JUNE 4 , 1037

there, the spread of dictatorships in Europe will cease, and
Hitler and, Mussolini will fall

April Tuesday, An official of the German Foreign Office,
with us at luncheon today, said to my daughter : Helmut Hirsch,
the American Jew who aimed at killing Hitler, cannot be let off
with life imprisonment. He must be executed though he did not
actually try to commit the crime.

There has been no proof shown us and no word about the
case printed. The American press has been very restrained m its
accounts thus far The Germans do not seem to recognize the
likelihood of violent reaction in the United States in case this
twenty-year-old boy is executed without evidence of his guilt.
I think he may have been used in a plan of revenge by the
group of Germans in Prague whose brothers and close friends
were executed by Hitler June 30, 1934, but I think if proof
cannot be found and published, this fellow should not be exe-
cuted I have said this to the Foreign Office officials more than
once The Germans came back with the statement: ‘‘The
American, Simpson, pardoned by us last December, is now
making addresses in the United States against the Nazi system
and for the Communists whose propaganda he tried to distribute
here.’’ Therefore, they say, “We must execute Hirsch.” I reply:
That will mean violent press attacks because evidence is being
withheld from us officially, and from everyone.

April ^0, Friday Aware that Hitler was holding on May i a
great propaganda assembly, as he did on April 20, his birthday,
I chose this time for a few days’ relaxation from my work. A
week ago the Propaganda Ministry sent me a formal invitation.
I had attended his birthday show which I felt was a reflection
on Hitler rather than an honour to him. That seemed to me
enough even for a diplomat, so I wrote that I was to be away
and indicated that the Counsellor and staff would attend instead.

This morning at 1 1 o’clock, my wife, daughter and myself,
with our good chauffeur, took to our car. The weather was more
beautiful than it has been since last September. We drove over
the great autobahn to Hanover. From there we went to ancient
Marburg, through Gottingen, a beautiful country with peasants

DECEMBER 29, I936 TO JUNE 4, I937 409

in their fields, men and women, hard at work. We spent the
night in the city where the questionable Von Papen made the
only free speech that has been delivered in Germany since our
arrival here.

May j. Saturday As we started on our journey towards Ver-
dun, the wonderful ancient palace on the top of a high hill was
so appealing that Martha and I climbed the stairways and
looked at the marvellous medieval structure. A thousand Nazis
were shouting and singing in honour of their Fuehrer on one side
of the hill. Nazi flags were waving, though very few projected
from the windows of residences. We crossed the Rhine at Co-
blenz, drove across the lower end of Luxemburg, went to the
city of the same name in the afternoon, and then visited Ver-
dun, where we looked at the graveyards full of dead soldiers
and at the houses wrecked by the Germans during the World
War. It was a sad view, every field and forest showing what
great bombs had done. 500,000 soldiers are reported to have
been killed in the struggle here between French and German
armies. I have never seen anything more condemning of war as
a method of solving any kind of problem than I saw at Verdun
and in the miles of land around it.

May 3, Monday. We visited the famous League of Nations
building in Geneva this morning. The American representative,
Arthur Sweetser, relative of some of our internationalist friends
in Chicago, was most kind but discouraged about the future of
the Wilson scheme which he and I had advocated in 1918-20 in
Chicago and the Middle West. He told me much about the
defeats of League efforts for world peace, and agreed entirely
with my ofiicial reports on the British-French blunders and the
crime of the Hoare-Laval betrayal of Ethiopia in November-
December, 1935. He said he was sure at the time that if sanc-
tions had been applied that autumn Mussolini would have been
compelled to submit to League decisions.

May 4. Tuesday. We set out for Berlin at 10 a m. over the
route via Basle, Heidelberg and Frankfurt. It was a beautiful
section of Europe Between Basle and Heidelberg, in Baden, I

410 DECEMBER SQ, I936 TO JUNE 4, 1937

counted forty-five women working in the fields in ten minutes
just looking to my right. There were perhaps a few more men,
though not many young ones. Germany has her young men in
arms. She has always had her women at work on farms : plough-
ing, digging weeds out of wheat fields and planting potatoes.
That is what they were doing today, sturdy, big-handed women
as active and able as men Americans would be surprised to see
this, and their women, if in the fields, would look far less
vigorous or able.

We reached Heidelberg about 8 o’clock and there took the
autobahn towards Frankfurt where we wished to spend the
night. It was a wonderful road like the one between Potsdam
and Hanover. Being late, we allowed our chauffeur to drive
about 90 miles an hour. It was dangerous because tyres might
get hot and explode ; however, nothing happened and we found
ourselves well located in a good hotel.

May 6 . Thursday. On Monday,* Lord Lothian, Lloyd
George’s war-time secretary, the former Philip Kerr, came to
Berlin at Hitler’s request and he is reported to have had two
hours with the dictator. He is to be with us for luncheon today.
On May 3, Von Neurath was in Rome to talk with Mussolini.
The sam6 day Goering was in Yugoslavia to talk with their
government chief. I shall probably learn a little of what this is
aU about within the next few days. I believe, though. Hitler and
his intimates are uneasy about what is happening in Spam and
equally anxious about the possibility of a general co-operative
arrangement among the Danube-Balkan states. Germany thinks
she must control if not annex them, but Italy wants to do the
same thing, especially if Spain recovers its independence.

We had Ambassador Dieckhoff, leaving tonight for Washing-
ton, as honour guest. I welcomed him in a brief speech in
which I mentioned humorously the low tariff policy of the
Roosevelt Administration and the freedom of the Philippines.
The guests laughed except Lord Lothian who pretended after-
ward that he had never heard of our low tariff negotiations.
DieckhojBF replied without referring to these difficult points,
perhaps afraid of being quoted by German guests.

When we retired from the dining-room, I was able to talk a

DECEMBER 20, I 936 TO JUNE 4 , 1037 4 I I

little with Lothian whom I had met in London in 1928. He
was then in private life in London and still quite enthusiastic
about his former chief, Lloyd George, Now he ridiculed him
and especially his recent speeches against the Tory British
regime. He praised Hitler for saving Germany in 1933 and
referred to his long talk of May 3 with the Fuehrer, saying
it was mostly about Mussolini and British-German relations,
now quite critical. Further he was not willing to go, referring
more than once to my letter to him in 1935 about the dangerous
European situation. His hatred of France was revealed twice, as
well as his dislike of Woodrow Wilson’s efforts in 1918-20. I
could hardly make out just where he belonged in European
alignments. He seemed to be more a Fascist than any other
Englishman I have met. Recent English criticism of Italy and
especially Germany with reference to their barbarism in Spain
bothered him.

May 12. Wednesday. After a week of quiet, I learn today
from the press people that my careful letter to Senator Bulkley
of March i has been violently discussed in the United States
Senate. My object was twofold ' (i) to show how the Supreme
Court, under Marshall, rendered its decisions claiming the right
to veto acts of Congress ; (2) to reveal once more how victorious
parties defeated Presidents Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt,
and Woodrow Wilson, their own chiefs elected by overwhelm-
ing votes, when they tried to do what they had been elected to
do. My conclusion was that democracy in the United States is in
more danger than at any time since Lincoln.

Strange to say, Senators focused on a single sentence at the
end of my letter in which I said a near-billionaire had been re-
ported to me as favouring a dictatorship, not unlike those in
Russia, Germany and Italy. There was no reference at all to the
major facts of our past history. Fearing something like this
might happen, I had sent a copy of my letter to Judge Moore,
asking him to send it to the Richmond Times-Dispatch for
publication. And about the time the Senate discussion started,
perhaps the second day, it was printed. As yet I have not learned
what the press in general did. I fear its reporters simply fol-
lowed the senators’ attacks.

412 DECEMBER 20, I 936 TO JUNE 4 , 1937

May 75. Saturday, Clippings came to me revealing what has
been published about my letter — misrepresentations of a shame-
ful kind. Senators Borah and King are my main attackers. Their
aim was to make it appear absolutely necessary for me to resign
my post in Berlin and then testify as to the millionaires who
were being manipulated from European capitals. The State De-
partment refused to co-operate with the Senators and I believe
warned them of their folly. I sent a telegram to the President
today calling attention to the fact that no notice was taken of the
real argument of my letter. I also sent one yesterday to Judge
Moore, asking him to remind Senator King how the one sen-
tence had been magnified and to add that I could not give names
of people who had talked to me confidentially in the United
States about possible dictatorships. I gave the American press
people here careful summary statements of what I had said and
why my information as to plans for the dictatorship could not be
given out. They say full reports of this explanation were pub-
hshed. If so, some corrections may come.

Not a word has come to me from the German Foreign Office.
I do not think anything has been said in the German papers,
though I am sure telegrams have come from the German
Embassy in Washington. The Germans, in my opinion, think
I might publish a book on my sad four years here if they start
attacks on me. I am sure the Foreign Office people are half in
sympathy with me, also that its officials are wise as to what is
best to do and say in such situations. I am ready to resign, as
Washington officials know. To do nothing here is not appealing
to me.

May ig, Wednesday, Today I received a cordial letter from
President Roosevelt in which he said he agreed with me about
the Supreme Court problem and added that this year is the best
time to have truthful, frank, national discussion. The letter was
written just before he left for his Gulf of Mexico vacation trip.
So he was not in the United States to see how the Senators
attacked me for the letter I had written. The President also
asked me for my personal opinion of the new Ambassador,
Dieckhoff, soon to arrive in Washington.

DECEMBER 29, 1936 TO JUNE 4, I937 413

Judge Moore wrote me also and stated that the President
has promised the Berlin post to Davies, at present in Moscow,
or rather on the way via London where he probably spent large
sums to see the Coronation ceremony on May 1 2. Moore was
so sure of this that he did not deliver my last letter to the Presi-
dent. From my point of view this type of appointment seems so
improper and unbecoming to our democratic country that I am
greatly disposed to dechne to resign as I had offered to do. The
idea of having a man here who speaks no German, is insuffi-
ciently versed in European history or the background of the
present situation, and is prepanng to spend $100,000 a year!
At any rate, I shall postpone my return to the United States
and also give the President my judgment of such a man in so
important a position.

May 20. Thursday. Today a poor seventy-year-old German
came to see me. He lost everything he had during the inflation
period and is on the pension list. But he had made an inven-
tion for preserving wood against fire and thought he could
borrow some money and begin a business which would give
him some property again. He had applied for his patent, he
said, but the government would not allow him to register it.
I was not sure, but he showed me an announcement which
indicated that all inventions and discoveries belong to the
government. At any rate, he was afraid, expecting to be
arrested if it were known that he saw me, especially as he wished
to get a passport to the United States where he hoped he could
sell his invention and make a living. I could not encourage
him because he has no means at all to start with.

This is only one of many such cases that come to my atten-
tion. I received a few days ago the Rockefeller Foundation
report for 1936. It shows that 1,639 German professors and
teachers have been dismissed since 1933 and that the Rocke-
feller Foundation has given $532,181 to help these poor people.
The German system prohibits all opposition and criticism;
it controls all teaching from the low-grade schools through the
universities; it will have only one church — ^based on certain
ancient superstitions before the dawn of German history. The
system has been operating only about three years but the people

414 DECEMBER 29, I936 TO JUNE 4, I937

seem to have surrendered to an amazing extent. Their govern-
ment has a propag2inda chief in the Foreign Office who spends
millions of dollars a year trying to spread their system over the
world.

The German papers this morning carried violent attacks
upon Cardinal Mundelein of Chicago because he criticized the
cruel German system before a great audience of priests. Appar-
ently, American Catholics are joining the Jewish and other
church people in attacking the German religious autocracy.

I had an appointment with Dr. Schacht this morning at 12
o’clock. I asked him if the new Ambassador, Dieckhoff, had
real authority to negotiate a commercial treaty with the United
States. He did not say yes or no, but he insisted that he agreed
with Secretary Hull as to lowering tariffs and thus moving
towards world peace. However, he quickly said Hull had pre-
vented Brazil from giving Germany a bilateral treaty and a
credit arrangement. I did not believe this, but he insisted that
he knew that Hull threatened Brazil with refusal to take coffee
if she made concessions to Germany.

When Schacht went a step further and said Germany would
make no other treaties except bilateral agreements like those
with Italy, Belgium, and others, I saw he did not agree with
Hull, and he then complained of American opposition. I asked
him if he had read the German attack on Cardinal Mundelein
of Chicago. He said, “Yes.” I then handed him the Rocke-
feller report on the dismissal of 1,639 professors and teachers
and called his attention to the Rockrfeller Institute’s gift of
1532,181. He did not deny the truth of the account, but at
once said: “Yes, Catholics, Jews, and teachers suffer in Ger-
many. It is the effect of the revolution like that of France in
1789.” I questioned this. He said it could not be stopped for
years and seemed reconciled to the arbitrary system wiiich he
formerly condemned when talking with me. I was somewhat
surprised. The conversation came to an end and I felt I must
telegraph the gist of his comment to Washington. There is no
prospect of improving German-American relations, no chance
at all. Schacht talked as if the Hitler system were permanent.

May 2g. Saturday. As I returned this afternoon from Magde-

DECEMBER I936 TO JUNE 4, I937 415

burg, I found a letter marked “confidential” on the desk as
I entered the house. It was from Meissner, Hitler’s Private
Secretary. It was Hitler’s reply to my letter to him of April
30. I had requested commutation of sentence for poor Hirsch’s
crime, an “attempt to kill Streicher,” they say. My points were
that he had not done the deed, nor been caught trying to do
it, and that he was an American citizen who would not under
American law be executed for planning a thing that had not
been done.

Hitler’s reply was that no leniency was possible. Some time
after reading the letter, I called Meissner on the telephone
for a brief talk. His housekeeper reported that he was out for
the evening. I hoped the execution might be delayed, as I was
more convinced than ever that the young boy was at worst a
dupe in the affair and should not be killed.

This morning I had another curious case brought to my
attention. A German woman came to me with the hope of
finding a way to emigrate from Germany with a man to whom
she had been engaged since 1933. The man was an engineer
in high public position before Hitler came to power. He was
a half-Jew. She was an assistant in the French Embassy. But
the man was dismissed from his position in 1933. He tried to
find employment but failed. People were forbidden to employ
him. So the marriage was postponed because it was forbidden
in Germany.

The woman some time ago lost her position and could not
find another. The Stumer attacked the couple because of their
continued devotion to each other. She managed to see Hitler
himself to ask his tolerance, that is, the right to marry. Hitler
refused, and the Secret Police took her fiance’s passport to
leave Germany away from him. Letters to both of them were
seized, especially all from outside Germany. The Fraulein
hoped the American Consulate here might help her and her
fiance to go to the United States where they had kinspeople,
but could not hear from them because letters were alw^ays
stopped.

It seemed to me a sad case, but I could hardly see how
anything could be done. She said if nothing could be done they
were going to slip across the- French border and the French

4 I 6 DECEMBER 29, I936 TO JUNE 4, I937

Ambassador had promised to help them if they weie arrested
for want of passports.

Another illustrative fact of a day or two ago was the way
the dead bodies of the Hindenburg disaster were buried at
Frankfurt on May 22. The Hitler district leader there had
charge. The people who accompanied the bodies to the ceme-
tery were uniformed Storm Troopers, Black Shirt companies,
and the Hitler Jugend, tens of thousands of them. The civilians
were crowded off the streets or stood in the rear when services
were conducted. Although Catholic and Protestant pnests
and people were present, the leader, Sprenger, made no refer-
ence to God or any possible salvation of souls except that con-
tained in the ancient pagan belief: ‘They had gone to their
Valhalla.*’ This seems to indicate that Rosenberg’s religious
system is being accepted. No complaints were reported in
Frankfurt at this new-old religious service. When the burial
was finished, a great volley of guns was fired and military
planes flew over the crowd

May 31, Monday As usual after some months here, I have
a persistent headache. Yesterday was a busy day, although it
was Sunday. I spoke at the American Church on Decoration
Day, my subject being “Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you” — ^from St. Matthew vii. My idea was to
show how men nearly always lose a war, even those who win
the last battles. To avoid being misquoted by the press people
in the United States, I gave a brief outline to the American
press in Berlin. I spoke half an hour to a perfectly still audi-
ence. I fear no German paper will print a word this week, as
it was about peace.

Having received a note Saturday afternoon that Hirsch was
to be executed, I went to Von Neurath today to see if he could
not influence Hitler to respect American law. Von Neurath
indicated sympathy with my attitude and said he would see
Hitler tomorrow morning and present the case, at least to ask
delay.

Since everybody was excited about the bombarding of a
German war vessel off the eastern coast of Spain and the kill-
ing of more than twenty GermaStis, I asked Von Neurath how

DECEMBER 20 , I936 TO JUNE 4, I937 417

it had happened He declared he did not know^ but he said he
had opposed the German bombing of a Spanish city m return.
He insisted that he had urged once more that Germany agree
to the withdrawal of all troops that were fighting in Spain, but
he was doubtful whether the Non-Intervention Commission in
London could do anything, Germany and Italy having with-
drawn. He indicated that the situation was dangerous.

June 2. Wednesday, I went this afternoon to see Meissner,
Hitler’s secretary, and stressed again the injustice of executing
Hirsch with no evidence given to us or to our government. I
also told him Secretary Hull had telegraphed me again to ask
delay or, if proof was conclusive, a life sentence. He said it
was proved that Hirsch was to have bombed and destroyed the
Nazi Party building in Nurnberg and to have killed Streicher,
the notorious Jew hater, editor of the Sturmer^ but Meissner
agreed that consideration should be given to American law
since Hirsch was an American citizen. He promised to see
Hitler Wednesday morning and present my appeal. But he
indicated that executions were done in secret in Germany and
that he feared the Fuehrer would not even delay it.

The Spanish situation looks a little easier, but reports come
that airplanes, submarines, ships and German soldiers are
already on the way to Spain. The new English Ambassador
here is reported to be in full sympathy with the German-Italian
aggression in Spam. His name is Henderson, and he was in
Argentina several years before coming here. He had already
revealed his complete pro-Franco attitude, seemingly unaware
of the dangers to England. He is also reported to have in-
formed the German Government that England would make
no objections if Hitler seized Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Miss Schulz, correspondent of the Chicago Tribune^ re-
ported this afternoon that Von Neurath is leaving Berlin on
June 7 to visit the governments of Yugoslavia, Hungary, and
Bulgaria. My guess is that his mission is to defeat the efforts
of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Rumania to enlarge the Little
Entente for mutual protection. This visit seems also the logical
outcome of the plan to help Italy conquer Spain. Germany
will then advance its thousand-year aim to annex or at least
o

4 i 8 DECEMBER 29 , I936 TO JUNE 4, I937

subordinate all the Balkan countries. Italy is to be the master
of the Mediterranean area except for France, and Germany
the master of the 80,000,000 people all the way to Greece.
Information today is sad.

June 3. Thursday. I made two revealing if ineffective visits
this afternoon. I saw the French Ambassador at 5 p.m. He
agrees as to the imminent dangers of today, Italy taking Spain,
and Germany, later, taking the Balkan states. He said Von
Neurath had told him Tuesday that he had prevented or at
least argued successfully in a Cabinet session Monday against
Germany’s continuing her bombing in Spain. This is stronger
than what I had learned Monday.

When I indicated our troubles about Hirsch, he said he
knew about the case but was not surprised at Hitler’s
attitude. Then he added: ‘T know that Mussolini ordered
the killing of the King of Yugoslavia when he landed in
Marseilles two years ago. That is the dictator’s way of doing
things.”

From the French Embassy I went directly to the German
Foreign Office, where Von Mackensen, son-in-law of Von
Neurath, told me that his father-in-law had argued with Hitler
Tuesday morning, as he had promised to do, against the execu-
tion of Hirsch. He then said Meissner had seen Hitler this
morning and again at 2 this afternoon to warn him about the
international repercussions of the case, but, he added, ^^Hitler
would not even postpone the execution and Hirsch is to be
beheaded tomorrow morning at sunrise.” There is no way to
stop it. I reminded him of previous German blunders in rela-
tions with the United States. He agreed, but gave no indication
of a better understanding of things.

June 4. Friday. The poor Hirsch had his head chopped off
this morning at sunrise. When the press representatives came
to me I felt compelled to give the facts about the execution and
all our efforts to save his life, though we never claimed com-
plete innocence on his part. This young Jew, not unnaturally,
may have listened to the advice of persecuted Germans outside
the country and may have wished to kill Streicher whose one

DECEMBER 29, I936 TO JUNE 4, 1037 419

profession for five years has been to persecute Jews and drive
them out of the country.

With all the troubles people have in Europe, the United
States also shows rather sad evidence of abuses there which
may, after a while, lead to troubles for the democracy which
all of us hoped to achieve, and which we actually believed in
though it has not been really practised on a national scale.

Governments which claim to be democratic, that is, claim to
be acting always for the good of their peoples, often abuse
their opportunities. But this is only a mild criticism of what has
taken place in all greater countries since the end of the World
War. I can’t forget the published reports that American and
British arms manufacturers defeated the League of Nations’
peace efforts more than once. Soon after coming here, I
learned the French munitions makers had helped Hitler to
power. Is it possible for mankind to be just and fair? Is it
possible for governments and powerful corporations to act in
the interests of the masses of men?

XII

June 5 , ig^y to September 28, igg8

June 5. Saturday. This has been a hard week, with the Ger-
man bombing of helpless people in Almeria, Spain, early Mon-
day morning, and the refusal to grant Hirsch any consideration
at all, though our government repeatedly asked for actual
proof, and consideration of our law since the man had not
actually been caught trying to murder Streicher. But treatment
of peoples is more arbitrary than it has been since the Middle
Ages. What is to come of all this one cannot say: German
domination of all Europe or another war?

June 14. Monday. We had a luncheon party yesterday for
Colonel Knox, candidate last year for the Vice-Presidency of
the United States. We had Dr. Von Kuhlmann, a former Ger-
man Foreign Secretary, and Captain Wiedemann, a personal
adviser and companion to Hitler. The Ambassador from Ar-
gentina sat on my right, trying hard to speak English. Some
leading newspaper correspondents were present too: Lochner;
Ebbutt of the London Times ; Shirer of the Hearst press ; and
Deuel of the Chicago Daily News, Knox’s paper for the last
six years.

Knox surprised me, he having been a sturdy Republican all
his life, by talking in a friendly way about John L. Lewis, the
powerful C.I.O. labour organizer who has caused so many sit-
down strikes all over the United States Knox said he had
known Lewis a long time (he was a Republican labour chief
until 1932) and had seen him just before he left the United
States. He thinks Lewis wiQ be a candidate for the Democratic
nomination in 1 940, and having practically all labour organiza-
tions behind him, he will bolt the Democratic convention if
not nominated and then run as a labour independent. This,
Knox said, would give the Republicans their chance to regain
control of the country, but, he added, his party must be liberal

JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938 42I

if it wants to win. From his talk I inferred that he and leading
Republicans are already encouraging Lewis. Knox talked as
though he agreed with most of what Roosevelt has done or is
trying to do, and I inferred further that he is beginning his
own moves for the Republican nomination. He has spent a
month in Europe, has had talks with Mussolini and others in
Italy, but will not see Hitler or Goering while here.

Saturday Stalin executed eight Russian Red Army generals.
They were supposed to be intriguing with Germany, even with
Fascists in France, for the overthrow of the Soviet Govern-
ment. It has been charged that the Russian generals had prom-
ised to give Germany the Ukraine and break off the treaty
with France and Czechoslovakia. What was really behind it
all I can hardly judge, but Wiedemann, who sat next to me at
the table yesterday, said that he had to get all possible in-
formation he could Saturday and Sunday and telephone it to
Hitler, then at Berchtesgaden near the Austrian border. That
made one wonder if some of Hitler’s chiefs had not been doing
something in Russia.

However, the German papers treat the matter as one of the
barbaric crimes of modern history, never intimating that Hitler
and Goering killed hundreds of their German opponents in
June and early July, 1934. High officers of the German army
held a meeting in Berlin and compelled Hitler to confess some
of his crimes. Nor was there any published evidence of the
guilt of any of Hitler’s opponents. Curious now to find that
Goebbels, who had a big share in the German murders of 1934,
is in control of all the German papers denouncing Russia’s
executions.

June ly, Thursday. Hitler has made a speech to young
Italians just at the time when the papers are boasting of the
peace talk with England which Von Neurath is going to Lon-
don to negotiate. Hitler talked of his readiness for war. People
in the Umted States seem determined to stay neutral even
facing a Europe under the control of a single dictatorship.

The preoccupation of European powers with the events in
Spain the last two weeks, and with liappemngs in Russia, seems
to have given Hitler, Goering and their fellows the first oppor-

422 JUNE 5 , 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938

tunity they have had since they came to power to annex parts,
if not all, of Czechoslovakia. Austria they would like to have
too, but they can’t be sure what Mussolini would do. The Ger-
man dictators crave annexation without war, as they are bank-
rupt and foodstuffs are very scarce. The drought of the last
three weeks seems to have cut wheat and other foodstuff crops
by about 30 per cent over one-half of Germany.

Last Monday, when peace talks with England began, five
Protestant preachers were arrested, Jacobi of the Kaiser Wil-
helm I Memorial Church, who has talked over his religious
freedom problems with me, being the most prominent. At the
same time arrests in Munich and searches of the Catholic
bishop of Cologne were made. The London Times correspon-
dent says his paper refuses to print more than half his stories
now, but the Manchester Guardian publishes accounts which
seem to reach it through secret channels via the Foreign
Office in London.

June 20, Sunday. My wife and I had dinner yesterday even-
ing with the Latvian Minister. Nearly all the guests were of
independent minds in conversation, which is unusual for Berlin.
The Minister is not a rich man and his house and dining-room
showed modest but entirely adequate conveniences. He made
it plain to me in the very beginning that he is opposed to the
Nazi dictatorship, also that he is uneasy about the outcome
of the London conference between Germany, England, France,
and Italy. The French Ambassador, Frangois-Poncet, sat oppo-
site me at the table and was free to speak even before guests
about the dangers ahead, but he never acknowledges the blun-
der his country made in January, 1935, in promising Ethiopia
to Italy and forcing the League of Nations into its last great
defeat.

The Latvian Military Attache, who sat on my right, spoke
freely of the dangerous probable consequences of Russia’s
weakening position. The Czech Minister was more concerned
about the threats to his little country. He acknowledged the
drift of things revealed in the Manchester Guardian^ wonder-
ing whether Benes could make friendly approaches to Hitler
after the daily press attacks in Germany against his govern-

JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938 423

ment. He reported that he had made a formal protest to the
German Foreign Office about falsehoods as to his government’s
encouraging maltreatment of Germans in Czechoslovakia. His
wife said to my wife ; “If Germany attacks our country, Russia
will come at once to our defence.” I doubt this, unless France
attacks Germany in the Rhine zone.

Sitting with the Latvian Minister and the French Ambassa-
dor after dinner, I raised the Spanish problem. The French-
man was hopeless and said Blum would be overthrown in
two days. I doubt this, but I know the situation is dangerous
in Paris. Frangois-Poncet then said England is going to yield
to the German demands in the Near East. Will that mean war?

I asked. He said : “No, perhaps not at once, because France is
so pacifist.” He said, however, that he had rented his summer
house here, near Potsdam, on the condition that he may give
it up in a month. He is really afraid war will break out about
the end of July.

I do not believe this because Germany’s foodstuffs are limited
and Hitler intends to take Austria or Czechoslovakia without
war. Russia is the only really uncertain power. The French
Ambassador also said to me that he knew the Germans had
been dealing with Russian generals to overthrow the StaUn
government, perhaps to procure for Hitler the coveted Ukraine.

June 23. Wednesday. Thus far we have had an anxious
week. On Monday, the papers described the fall of the Blum
government in Paris. With Russia in its supposed weakened
position and the Popular Front in France (30 per cent Com-
munist) fallen. Hitler apparently thought the time was ap-
proaching for him to dictate to Europe. So he told V on Neurath
he was not to go to London. The English had apparently made
liberal promises to Germany, but Hitler, it seems, demanded
more, either in Spain or in the Czechoslovak-Austrian region,
perhaps in both. England had indicated it could not go farther
and Hitler stood on his sensational demands and so refused to
allow Von Neurath to attend the London conference.

Tuesday the Propaganda Minister, Goebbels, made a violent
speech against Russia, Czechoslovakia, France and England,
and the papers loudly denounced Foreign Minister Eden for

424 JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938

having said he could not make further concessions We had
reports from the Foreign Office, as also from the British Em-
bassy, that Henderson, the British Ambassador, had practically
delivered a lecture to Von Neurath, aimed at Hitler. He had
done his best for two months to help Germany and England
settle Spanish difficulties, perhaps even Germany’s claims to-
wards the east. Just as success seemed about to be won. Hitler
had broken off negotiations. Henderson called it pure folly
and showed his own anger.

When I saw Von Neurath at his annual charity reception,
he showed a disposition to talk. I said: I am sorry you are
not going to London to settle that long-drawn-out Spanish
war. He at once replied that he too was sorry and otherwise
indicated his realization' of Hitler’s arbitrary blunder. There
were i,ooo guests on Von Neurath’s lawn. Several diplomats
showed their sympathy with Von Neurath, even the French-
man, the Latin Americans, and especially the Ministers from
the Danube-Balkan states.

Today it is reported that Mussolini is displeased with Hitler’s
decision, that the German army officers are equally dissatisfied
because they hoped to get their forces out of Spain, and that
Hitler himself is for once embarrassed. I doubt this last. Any-
way, we telegraphed the violent press attacks on England and
the reported restiveness here, in spite of press behaviour. My
opinion is that Hitler hoped to get what he wanted because
France and Russia were so upset, and hoped to alienate
England from France

Concerned about the British attitude, I went to see Ambassa-
dor Henderson. The first point discussed was my two-year
advocacy of British-American commercial co-operation and
lower tariffs. The Ambassador said he agreed entirely. But when
I asked him about his government’s attitude towards Germany
he said : “My government has been unwise in its relations with
Germany. I told Von Neurath that, and also told him Hitler’s
decision to keep Von Neurath at home was equally unwise.”

He turned to a general discussion of things: “Germany
under Hitler is renewing the Bismarck policy of annexing all
European peoples of German descent, Austria, Czechoslovakia,
and other countries.” Although I had suspected Henderson

JUNE 5; 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938 425

was inclined to favour German annexations, I did not think he
would go so far in his statements. He then added : ''Germany
must dominate the Danube-Balkan zone, which means that she
is to dominate Europe. England and her Empire is to dominate
the seas along with the United States. England and Germany
must come into close relations, economic and political, and con-
trol the world.” He said: "France is a back number and un-
worthy of support Franco is to control Spain.” He seemed not
to be aware of British-American opposition to the ruthless Nazi
treatment of Catholics, Protestants and Jews. I wonder if Am-
bassador Henderson really represents his government? What
would happen to Britain if Germany annexed all the peoples
all the way to the Black Sea? *

* The following correspondence has passed between the publisher and
Sir Nevile Henderson .

January iQth, 1941.

My dear Sir,

I am about to publish the diary kept by William E Dodd during the
period of his duty as Umted States Ambassador to the German Reich.

I am enclosing on a separate sheet a passage under the date 23rd June,

occurs to me that Mr. Dodd may have misunderstood you If so, I
should be very glad to publish a footnote by you correcting his statement.

Yours truly,

Victor Gollancz.

The Rt. Hon. Sir Nevile Henderson, P.G., K.G.M.G.,

St. James’s Glub,

106 Piccadilly,

London W.i.

January 22nd, 1941.

Sir,

I greatly appreciate your courtesy in mviting my comment on Mr.
Dodd’s account of a conversation with me in Berlin. I have no recollection
of It myself and can therefore only tell you what I might have said and what
I could not possibly have said. Yet, even that is difficult as Mr. Dodd’s
account is so misleading in any case.

Take for instance the first statement attributed to me about Neurath.
I could not possibly have said to Hitler that it was “unwise to keep Neurath
at home.” Undoubtedly this really refers to Hitler’s refusal to allow Neurath
to go to London on a special visit to discuss Anglo-German relations (early
June 1937 — see begmmng of Ghap. V of my book). But as Dodd quotes me
It would look as if I had wished to get Neurath away from Berlm (which is
absurd) ! I

And It is the same with the general discussion. It is quite inconceivable
that I should have spoken, as Dodd records, about Bismarck and annexing
“Czechoslovakia and other countries”. What I would have said would be
that Hitler was pursuing the Bismarck policy of uniting all Germans in one

O 2

426 JUNE 5 , 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938

June 30, Wednesday. I heard from a friend today distressing
news about the new Under-Secretary of State, Sumner Welles.
According to the story as I hear it, six senators secured his
appointment by threatening quietly to vote against Roosevelt’s
Supreme Court reform if he did not name Welles to the post.
He was Ambassador to Cuba early in the Roosevelt regime.
His conduct there was most embarrassing, I have heard.

He has one of the greatest houses in Washington, with fif-
teen servants, and another house for summer use in Maryland.
He prides himself on spending twice as much as Secretary Hull

Reich. It was obvious that that was Hitler’s aim and every report to H.M.G,
indicated that it was so (see page 77 of Failure of a Mission on my visit to
the Nurenberg Rally). But a statement of fact is a very different thing to
favouring a policy That I can sincerely say that I never did, though I
regarded German unity as ultimately inevitable and in any case realised
that it could only be prevented by force. Nor could I possibly have said
that ‘'Germany must dominate the Danube-Balkan zone.” I spent five
years at Belgrade working to keep the Balkans out of all European domina-
tion, either German or Italian hr Russian * But I might well have said that
Germany was destined to play a predominant role m Central Euroije and
the Danube basin. That again would be a statement of fact in view of
Germany’s size and organisation.

The remark attributed to me that England and Germany “must control
the world” is pure balderdash and hardly fits m with the preceding sentence
about the U S. What I might well have said would be that if there was ever
to be lasting peace in Europe, Britain and Germany had got to find a
“modus Vivendi.”

It is true that I had very little confidence in the efficacy of the French
policy, but there again I would never have said that France was “unworthy
of support.” I would have a thousand times rather have supported France,
but I did have little faith in the value of her support.

I may well have said that I thought that Franco would win in Spain.
It seemed to me then inevitable m view of the policy of non-intervention
when others were intervemng m spite of it.

As to my ignorance of Nazi persecution of all religions, I can only say
that I did what I doubt if any other diplomat did — ^protested to Hitler himself
on this subject — and before June 23rd, 1937. I admit that the only answer I
got from Hitler was that “m no country was religion so free as in Ger-
many” ’ * One could only gasp.

The whole passage is most misleading and, even though I can remember
nothing but the most desultory conversations with Mr. Dodd, utterly inac-
curate. What basis of truth there is m it, such as Hitler’s intention to unite
all Germans, thereby dominatmg Gentr^ Europe, Dodd has asserted to be
my desire instead of merely a statement of Germany’s clearly defined aims.
Personally I liked Dodd and I believe he was a competent historian, but
the point of any conversations I had with him was always that there was
only one way of stopping Hitler — ^and that was by force.

Yours truly,

Nevile Henderson.

JUNE 5 , 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938 427

and gives parties hardly matched by any of the Ambassadors
in Washington. I was a litde surprised to read a day or two
ago in the press that Roosevelt had spent a Sunday with Welles
at his Maryland mansion. Politics is a strange game, even with
a real man like Roosevelt.

July 6 . Tuesday, President Quezon of the Philippines came
to call and to indicate his objective* to see what Germany is
like, to talk with Hitler, and also to discuss possible trade agree-
ments. I had met Quezon about 1912 when he was lecturing in
Chicago for Philippine independence. He seems quite able and
thoughtful. The independence of his country is his basic ideal
in life and it seems about to be realized, but he showed some
uneasiness about Japan and expressed the hope that Germany
might recover her colonial possessions in the Far East. I thought
he preferred this because it might prevent Japan from annexing
his country. He also dreaded the time when American tariffs
would be applied in the Philippines.

July 12. Monday. George S. Messersmith, American Minister
to Austria, called. He is soon to succeed Under-Secretary Carr
in our State Department, Carr having been in the position for
forty years.

I reported to Messersmith that the Austrian Minister in Ber-
lin had shown much anxiety to me about the fate of his country
as we were walking together privately in the Tiergarten. Mes-
sersmith said the concern was due to conversations between the
British Ambassador here, Henderson, and an important official
from Vienna. The British Ambassador said Austria, being Nazi,
must be annexed to Germany. This was at once reported to
Schuschnigg, the Chancellor of Austria, and that led to imme-
diate telegraphic inquiries in London.

Schuschnigg was satisfied by denials from Minister Eden,
but Messersmith added that he was still expecting trouble when
he left Vienna, especially about the Hitler conferences in Berch-
tesgaden. Von Papen having made demands which could not
be accepted. Messersmith said Austria would go to war if Hitler
sent an army into the country. Something like this is always
happening.

428 JUNE 5 , 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28 , I938

Karl von Wiegand called this afternoon, having been in Aus-
tria recovering from an illness contracted in Spain. He said
that Austria is still in great anxiety, but that he talked an hour
in Munich with General von Reichenau, one of the foremost
officers in the army, and the general was most impatient with
the Fuehrer who is committed to open intervention in Spanish
affairs. Von Reichenau said the army in general is by no means
in sympathy with the Hitler system, but that Hitler has greatly
increased the S.S. forces, taken the best young officers from the
army and built up the S.S. for personal purposes. Five thousand
S.S. troops are kept in Munich all the time, with other units scat-
tered over Germany. The idea seems to be to guard against
any internal or army revolt. All policemen are also taken from
the S.S. and are exceedingly well trained.

July 13. Tuesday, The Chinese Ambassador called this morn-
ing to express his appreciation of American sympathy at the
moment the Japanese attacks were beginning in North China
again. He added: ‘Japan chose this moment to attack China
because Russia is in such a domestic difficulty that she cannot
give us any aid. The Japanese military people are also pressing
for war at this moment %)ecause they think a victory in China
would restore the government’s popularity with the people who
have voted twice in recent elections overwhelmingly against the
present regime.” While I do not know enough of the situation
in the Far East to be too certain of his statement, I think his
analysis is reasonably logical and seems to be correct. The
Ambassador showed great concern, but said his government
would fight desperately against Japan.

July 14. Wednesday, In view of the international difficulties
and dangers I called on Secretary von Neurath of the Foreign
Office this morning at 12 o’clock. As I entered the Foreign
Office, the Japanese Ambassador was leaving Von Neurath
said to me that Russia is provoking the Chinese to fight the
Japanese. When I told him what the Chinese Ambassador had
said yesterday. Von Neurath insisted that Russia was the insti-
gator, but he added Germany is willing to support the United
States and England if they negotiate a peace in the Far East.

JUNE 5 , 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28 , I938 429

When I asked about the Spanish situation, he replied that
Mussolini is no longer insisting that Germany send more men
and ammunition to Spain. What specific conclusions one may
draw is not quite clear, but all statements as to the Spanish
war seem to indicate that a solution favourable to Germany
and Italy is being arrived at.

I am more inclined to accept the Chinaman’s conversation
as true than I am that of any high German official. Von
Neurath is personally opposed to much that Hitler does, but
he always surrenders.

July 20. Tuesday, Upon the request of Secretary Hull I
called on Von Mackensen, Under-Secretary here, this afternoon.
For half an hour I tried to learn what Germany really thinks
of the United States protests against war in the Far East. All
I could get from him was: ^‘Russia secretly helps both Japan
and China in the hope of weakening both powers.” Germany,
he said, was equally friendly to both Japan and China and not
disposed to help either side. When I inquired about his attitude?
towards the Hull memorandum which I had been asked to pre-
sent, he said he could not give me a written reply as Von Neu-
rath is away until September i, and he was leaving tomorrow;
but he insisted that Germany approved the British and Ameri-
can protests against the war in the Far East, except that no
official support could be given. I had some doubts.

Then he entered into a discussion of American-Brazilian
trade relations as operating to defeat German trade there.
When I said the cause of the American attitude was simply its
opposition to German export subsidies when they sent goods to
Brazil, he acknowledged that these subsidies were being granted
whereas a month ago when he protested to me about our trade
arrangement he had said Germany gave no subsidies. When I
insisted he had said there were no subsidies, he replied, “No,
I did not say so.” However, I know he did say so and I
reported to Washington his denial.

Not satisfied with the Foreign Office statements about the
Far East, I went to see the Frenph Ambassador. He said Russia
had notliing to do with the Far Eastern outbreak, but added
that if Russia does enter the war on the Chinese side there will

430 JUNE 5, 1937 TO s:eptember 28, 1938

be a European war. When I asked about Germany and Spain,
he said Hitler talked to him last Sunday as if he were fairly
certain the war there is soon to end. Then FranQois-Poncet
added: “Italy’s internal troubles and opposition are so great
that Mussolini will not send more troops to Spain.” I had my
doubts though I can believe the Italian people are opposed to
continued participation in the Spanish war.

The French Ambassador spoke of the propaganda mass meet-
ing for fine arts last week-end in Munich. He said Hitler’s
speech was almost childish. When I asked him about his attend-
ance at the Nurnberg Party Congress next September, he said :
“All other diplomats have indicated that they will attend. I
have asked my government whether I should go. They do not
answer, so I told Bulow-Schwante, in charge of protocol, that
I could attend only one day and not listen to the propaganda
speeches.” This will be the first time ambassadors from demo-
cratic countries have attended. I told him I could not attend
such Party propaganda meetings. I have not done so and can-
not do so unless ordered by my government, which would lead
to my resignation. I do not care to sit by quietly and listen to
Hitler and Goebbels denounce democracies. He agreed, but
added, “We may all have to attend to avoid trouble.”

July 24, Saturday. My wife and I left our home at 10.45 ^-.m.
and drove to Hamburg by 5.30, having stopped a half hour
on the way for luncheon. I got my room on the City of Balti-
more promptly and the ship sailed slowly down the Elbe at
7 p.m.

July 26. Monday. Yesterday there was what they call a
choppy sea and nearly everybody was seasick. I got on ship-
board worn out with a headache from which I had suffered
two months, also a nervous indigestion which troubled me so
that I ate nothing for thirty hours.

Reports from Berlin say that many more Protestant preachers
have been arrested, fifty-seven in jail, Niemoeller’s brother
among them. Two Germans who lived near the Polish boun-
dary were executed Friday because they were reported to have
told Poles what the German army plans were. The same arbi-

JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938 43I

trary treatment of all opponents, Catholics, Protestants, Jews,
and, of course, indiscreet talkers, continues. The totalitarian
state idea goes on without moderation. I have hoped to leave
Germany permanently for more than two years. What the
President will say this time I can’t guess, but I can hardly
stand such an atmosphere.

August 4. Wednesday. We arrived early this morning at Nor-
folk. We drove to Round Hill before 5 o’clock in the afternoon.
The farms all the way looked very prosperous, the ancient
region of Virginia far more so than I had expected. From
Leesburg to Round Hill, crops looked still better.

August II. Wednesday. After a week of light work on my
farm, repairing damaged roads and moving the old smoke
house to a better location, I was with President Roosevelt for
luncheon. A score of men were waiting to see him when I came
away. The President is greatly troubled about the danger of
war and also the continued depression in the United States.
He talked most frankly for an hour.

He said : “I wish you to return to Berlin for two or three
months. When you retire I have promised Ambassador Davies,
now in Russia, to appoint him your successor.”

Mr. Roosevelt had heard that I had been announced as one
of the speakers at the Williamstown Institute of Human Rela-
tions early in September. He urged me to go and “speak the
truth about things.” I told him I had been asked to speak be-
fore some Virginia and North Carolina universities, but I added
that I was not quite well and needed a real vacation. He urged
me to accept all the invitations I could. It was plain that he
wished me to interpret and discuss American and international
problems as best I could.

After the conference in the White House, I saw Secretary
Hull, who surprised me by reporting that Ambassador Dieck-
hoff had protested to him on August 6 against an interview
published on the 5th, on my arrival I had not mentioned Ger-
many or events there, though I referred to Martin Luther, and
I could not see how any fault could be found in what I said.
Mr. Hull had said at once to Dieckhoff: “I agree entirely with

432 JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938

what our Ambassador said and cannot see how a protest can be
made.” The Secretary and I talked nearly an hour, and we
were as much in agreement about European affairs as we have
been from the beginning He made it plain that he did not
wish Davies to be Ambassador to Berlin and he seemed glad to
know I had been urged to return even for three months.

My good friend Judge R. Walton Moore, now Counsellor to
the Department, advised me to call on the new Under-Secre-
tary, Sumner Welles. I have long believed Welles was opposed
to me and everything I recommended. However, I sent my
card to Mr. Welles’ office and offered to call, but he was
engaged and I did not care to wait and so returned, driving
my own car, to the farm

Washington was more crowded with automobiles than I had
ever before noticed. It was difficult to travel or even walk in
the city. It took me nearly an hour to get to a store where I
bought a box for filing letters, the store being only three blocks
from the State Department. On the way home, hundreds and
hundreds of cars were on the road. The man on Pennsylvania
Avenue from whom I bought some gas said : ‘‘Washington has
700,000 automobiles though her population is hardly 600,000.”

I was glad to get out of the city.

September 4, Saturday. This morning I read in the New York .
Herald Tribune a paragraph of a confidential letter I had sent
to Secretary Hull advising against attendance at the Nurnberg
party show by Prentiss Gilbert, now our Charge d’ Affaires in
Berlin. There was also reference to a telegram I had sent him
from Williamstown, also protesting strongly against this viola-
tion of our 150-year-old diplomatic custom of not attending
official party celebrations in foreign countries.

The letter had been sent ten days before I left for Williams-
town, for Judge Moore to hand to Secretary Hull without let-
ting anyone else see it. Now it has been published in the press
as if I had said it publicly at Williamstown, only a few days
after Gilbert had upset the precedent I set for four years, by
attending Hitler’s great Nazi propaganda spectacle.

September 30. Thursday. I went to Washington to attend the
funeral of my distinguished and almost life-long friend, Dr.

JUNE 5 , 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938 433

J, F. Jameson, long-time editor of the American Historical
Review and at the time of his sudden death assistant national
librarian. It was a sad occasion, many of my former historical
friends and associates there. He was the most learned historian
I had ever seen. Now he is gone, about seventy-eight years old.

October i 8 , Monday. After arranging some work to be done
by Tom Reed, a good tenant in one of my houses, I set out for
New York again to begin my journey once more to Berlin. The
State Department had arranged for me to go on October 20
and Secretary Hull had said to me the preceding Friday, I
believe, that the President at his home, Hyde Park, New York,
wished to talk with me again. I had talked with him a second
time about the middle of September. So I asked my son to meet
me again at New Brunswick, N.J. It was a long drive. I
reached my destination at 5 p.m. and William was at the door
of the Wilson Hotel. He drove for me then and we were in
his apartment early in the evening, a quiet place to rest even
in New York City. When I was just going to sleep, the Presi-
dent’s secretary called me and said I was expected there at 1 1
o’clock tomorrow, which means an&ther early start.

October xg. Tuesday. Driving over the wonderful New York
parkways, we reached the President’s house — a marvellous
place — at 11.30.

The President revealed his anxiety about foreign affairs, dis-
cussed the Japanese-Chinese situation, and talked of the possi-
bilities of the Brussels peace conference which Norman Davis
is to attend for him. One thing troubled him : Could the United
States, England, France and Russia actually co-operate? If so,
the Japanese could be halted and the dictators of Europe finally
be brought to some more peaceful position. I could see little
chance of real co-operation when England had refused so long
to make a treaty with the United States even on trade matters.

Before we finished I urged again that he appoint Professor
Shotwell of Columbia as my successor in Berlin. He said he
would appoint either Shotwell or a service man, Hugh Wilson,
now in the State Department. I told him a second time he
ought, if possible, to appoint Shotwell because of his university

434 JUNE 5 , 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 285 I938

connections as well as his national reputation as a scholar. He
agreed with me on this, but did not commit himself.

After the conversation was over, William and I were asked
to lunch with the President, his mother, and the Delanos of
Washington. It was a delightful occasion. As I left the Presi-
dent, he said again: “Write me personally about things in
Europe. I can read your handwriting very well.” I promised to
write him such confidential letters, but how shall I get them to
him unread by spies?

Last night I attended a meeting of some of William’s friends
who are with the peace organization for which he works and
lectures. Some twenty peace advocates all approved Roosevelt’s
recent speech in Chicago in which he almost advocated war to
stop the Japanese in China and the Italians in Spain. This sur-
prised me a little. The spokesman of one vast American peace
organization said American neutrality would not assure peace.
He thought a boycott of Japan should be applied and wished
my son to lecture on the meaning of boycott to the country.
Columbia professors, business men, and journalists were the
people present, and one very active woman. That was last
night ; the same ideas were discussed vigorously this evening.

October 20. Wednesday. George P. Brett, Jr., president of the
Macmillan Company, called to leave a copy of my book. The
Old South: Struggles for Democracy^ which is to be published on
October 26. He also urged the preparation of my second
volume, The Old South: Our First American Social Order ^ but did
not say I should resign my position which I had expected to do
September i. I could not promise how soon my work would be
ready. Not a line is written yet. He said that the volume just
out was considered very interesting by his critical workers and
proof-readers. I thanked him for the illustrations which had not
been easy to get.

When he departed other people came, so that I was engaged
until the ship was about to start. I had spent two and a half
months in the United States, but I had the same sort of nervous
headaches which plagued me when I sailed from Hamburg on
July 24.

October 2 g. Friday In Berlin once more. What can I do?

JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938 435

November 3. Wednesday, I have had three busy days read-
ing documents and recent newspapers to get the drift of things.
It has been decided that I am to leave Berlin for good about
March i, 1938* The President indicated that date though I had
asked to be relieved September i, 1937. He seemed to me to
wish I would stay a few months longer on account of the em-
barrassing pressure of men like Davies, now at Moscow, and
Thomas Watson who also wishes to be here. I feel I must go
because of the unbearable tension of Nazi Germany, my in-
creasing years, and the difficulty of writing the other volumes
of my Old South if I wait much longer.

In the Embassy office, engagements to see people are as
frequent as formerly. On Monday, Senator James Lewis of
Chicago spent an hour talking confidentially about the Presi-
dent, American economic conditions, and foreign dangers.
Much as he has travelled about Europe, he showed ignorance
of real American policies.

Tuesday Dr. Cheng, the Chinese Ambassador, spent half an
hour explaining his government’s position and its hopes that
the United States and England may unite to support China
against Japan’s cruel and amazing imperialism. He said he was
going to Brussels to see how the nine-power conference feels
about things. Dr. Cheng was a student at the University of
Chicago while I was there and had reported some time ago
that he knew me there as a professor.

Today the Swiss Minister spent an hour reviewing European
conditions and the Nurnberg Party Congress which he attended
for three days. In spite of certain indications which I have noted
before at big parties, I think he is still anti-Nazi and afraid his
little country may be annexed to Hitler’s Germany. He did not
tell me about the Nazi Party in Switzerland which has been
granted privileges there. Fear of Hitler is the cause of this,
the Swiss Government feeling that to do otherwise might cause
aggressive German action.

Tonight I went to a dinner-party at the Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute, the new president taking his place, my friend, the
former president, Planck, retiring. This organization is not
Nazi and some outstanding business men who were present
made their attitudes pl^n. They had no Hitler decorations on

436 JUNE 5 , 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938

their coats and they did not say “Heil Hitler” when others
came up to them and shook hands.

November 13. Saturday, Tonight we went to the annual ball
of Dr. Frank, head of the bar association and member of the
Hitler Cabinet. An enormous crowd, nearly all diplomats, was
present. Everybody was expected to contribute to the Winter-
hilfe (annual Nazi charity drive) by purchasing tickets which
might give them a prize. Nobody won any prize that I heard
of, though everybody gave 10 to 20 marks. At Frank’s table
were the French Ambassador and his wife, the Italian and
Polish Ambassadors, with others. A quite interesting judge of
the People’s Court sat on my right. We talked German history,
since present conditions cannot easily be discussed.

November 16. Tuesday, Douglas Miller reports to the govern-
ment at home that the director of the Deutsche Bank, Herr
Weigelt, told him that Germany is flying airplanes to China.
The Chinese Ambassador, a second visitor this morning, said
that Germany is shipping all kinds of war supplies over Russian
railroads both to China and Japan. I notice reports that Japan
sends millions of dollars worth of gold each week to New York
to pay for war materials.

The story of German-Italian propaganda in Brazil which
has been coming to me for a year now emerges into an account
of the rise of a Fascist state there. The new dictator, Vargas,
has now announced that he will not pay interest on American
loans or repay the capital. All treaties may now be declared
void when the dictator wishes to do so. The State Department
which arranged a trade treaty a little over a year ago is now
helpless and Secretary Hull has shown his disapproval.

November 18, Thursday, After a busy day we went to a dinner
at the French Embassy given in honour of Ambassador Bullitt of
Paris. There were forty guests present. After dinner Bullitt,
the French Ambassador, Dr. Frank, Dr. Rosenberg, myself,
and one or two others sat together and listened to Rosenberg
present to Bullitt the Nazi social philosophy, I could not see
exactly whether Bullitt approved it or not, but Rosenberg

JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938 437

and Frank argued their Nazi ideas. The Frenchman seemed
to be amused. I said nothing.

Bullitt had been three days in Warsaw and he reported, to
me this morning that Foreign Minister Beck of Poland had
assured him again and again that the Poles would do everything
possible for peace, not ally themselves with any nation, except
on commercial matters, and not intervene if Germany annexed
Czechoslovakia or if Russia seized Finland.

No German seems ever to think seizure of other people’s
territory is wrong. It is the result of hundreds of years of teach-
ing. Recently, Von Papen pressed the query in Paris : “What
will France do if we take over Austria?” Now the Poles, who
are in as tight a place as any people in Europe, are said to
be joining the German-Italian-Japanese combination against
Russia. I think they will be compelled to come into the so-called
anti-Comintem pact. A journalist who has been long in Russia
said to me today that many German and Italian secret workers
have been in Russia two years with the object of overthrowing
Stalin and setting up a Fascist system. Certainly there have
been Italian-German propagandists in Latin America doing
their utmost to upset our treaties and to set up dictatorships in
alliance with those of Europe. We have heard here about their
work in Brazil for nearly a year, and recently a Chile man re-
ported a Nazi Party in that country of 35,000 men, adding that
the Chilean Government expects to be a German colony in a
year or two. The Colombian Minister came to see me two days
ago and said that the activity all over Latin America was so
great that he wished me to report it.

With so many efforts to make a solid Fascist front from Rome
to Tokyo and similar efforts to swing Latin America into alli-
ances with these Berlin-Rome dictators, and especially to defeat
all easier trade relations, it seems to me that real co-operation
between the United States, England, France and Russia is the
only way to maintain world peace. One thing seems to me
certain : there will come a complete totalitarian domination of
Europe and Asia if democratic countries continue their popular
isolation pohcies All peoples are so afraid of another war that
Hitler and Mussolini think they can keep everybody scared and
seize what areas they want. I am afraid they are right in their

438 JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938

appraisals. If things go on in this way, England and the United
States are going to find their economic conditions worse than
ever. Although one cannot agree that Communism is any better
than Fascism, it would be a great thing for the United States,
England, and France to unite with Russia and simply say that
certain things must cease to be done.

November ig. Friday, We entertained Bullitt at luncheon
today, twenty-four guests present. Dr. Schacht said to me as he
came in; “I have not attended a Cabinet meeting since Sep-
tember 5.” This looks as if he were definitely out of the regime.
I asked him, confidentially, if he would accept an American
bank presidency. He said ; “Yes, and I would be delighted to
see the President often.” I wondered what he was going to do
with the Hitler statue in his parlour or with the painting of
Goering which I saw in his house the last time I was there.
Poor man — the ablest financier in Europe but utterly helpless
and in grave danger in case he were known to be considering
migration to the United States. Of course he will lose his
property in the event that he is able to slip out some way.

November 23. Tuesday. I had a message today fi'om Secre-
teiry Hull which surprised me a great deal. I had agreed last
August in a conversation with the President to return for three
months, after spending my vacation at home. The last time I
was with the President, October 19, he frankly said he had
given up his earlier plan and would appoint Shotwell or Hugh
Wilson. He said he was glad I was going back for some months.
I told him March r was the best time for my retirement partly
because of the weather conditions and partly because I did not
wish to have the German extremists think their complaints of
August 6, a protest by DieckhofF against my statement on
arrival in America, and September 5, in connection with my
advice to the State Department not to send a representative to
Numberg, had operated too efiFectively. They had no real reason
to complain at anything I had done or said.

Now comes a telegram indicating that I must retire between
December 15 and 31. Ambassador Hugh Gibson of Belgium is
to be appointed, and I was asked to present his name to the

JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938 439

Foreign Office at once. The President was reported to have
asked all this to be done.

The reason for this violation of my understanding with the
President is the opposition to me of Under-Secretary Welles.
I have recently seen signs of opposition to everything I have
recommended, except my refusal to go to Numberg. Since last
spring, Welles has had a controlling influence inside the De-
partment of State. It is well known to me that he is violently
opposed to my policies in regard to public service.

November sg. Monday. Having been in bed nearly all the
time since last Tuesday, when I had to beg Von Neurath to
excuse me from sitting with him at dinner, I managed to go to
my office. Von Neurath had invited all diplomats to attend an
opera Tuesday night in honour of the Hungarian Prime
Minister and others who were here for a week. I felt I must
accept, but after the opera ended, I was imequal to the continued
strain and was excused from dinner. The obj'ect of all this re-
ception and hospitality was to press the Hungarians for umon
with Hitler Germany. I noticed that the Hungarians did not
heil Hitler or raise their hands in salute when all Germans did.

In my office I learned from the consulate in Hamburg that
scores of importers of coffee have been imprisoned there because
they had left some of their profits in the exporting countnes, and
had not reported them to Goering’s economic office. One of the
most eminent of the prisoners committed suicide. A report came
from Munich that Julius Streicher has made an address in which
he declared that the Jews govern the United States, La Guardia
being their chief. Other evidence was brought from Munich
and Stuttgart that Hider’s government is doing its utmost in
South America to bring those countries into alliance with
Germany and Italy. This has been going on at least three years
at enormous expenditure.

November go. Tuesday. We received notice from Washington
that Gibson has declined the appointment to Berlin. I was
requested to inform the Foreign Office that Hugh Wilson of
the State Department was to be appointed. While evidence is
wanting, I believe the German Foreign Office refused to receive

440 JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I 938

Gibson. He had been an official in Belgium during the World
War and had also written a valuable book about Germany and
certain German leaders. I do not think the present regime
could endure more than was said in my book on Woodrow Wil-
son. I notified the Foreign Office at once and they replied that
their answer would be sent us in three or four days.

David Lloyd George, Britain’s war-time Prime Minister,
warned his government today against entering into a “thieves’
bargain with the dictators” and suggested it would be better
for Britain to go to war now rather than make an abject sur-
render to the Fascists. This Lloyd George address is very
different from his statements of 1934. But he seems to me to be
right now. How can England do anything after allowing Mus-
solini to master the Mediterranean, Ethiopia, and half of Spain?

December 3. Friday. Not a word from the Foreign Office
about the new nominee to succeed me. I can think of no reason
for this delay. Wilson was ten years in Switzerland but this
should be no excuse for a German objection. Yet I would not
be surprised if Hitler refused the United States representation
for quite a while. He and Goering are the most conceited men
I have ever seen, and both of them are angry, even uneasy,
about the slowly changing attitude of the United States.

Today the Volkischer Beobachter^ Nazi official organ, carried
a great headline saying the United States approved Russia’s
sending 300 war planes to poor China. Yesterday our Secretary
of State was attacked because he agreed with a New York Times
editorial advocating American-English co-operation in world
affairs and especially a boycott of Japan. Hitler sells war sup-
plies to both China and Japan, even furnishing German officers
to China. The object is, however, to have Japan control China
so that both may be ready to fight Russia if war ever comes in
Europe.

A report today from Warsaw says the Danzig League of
Nations official, Burckhardt, saw Hitler when he passed through
Berlin on his return from Geneva. Hitler said to him : “When-
ever I choose to do so I can annex all sections of European
countries where there are large German elements.” He simply
meant that Europe is so afraid of him that he can take Danzig,

JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28 , I938 44I

Austria, and Czechoslovakia with no real resistance. I doubt
this except one at a time and not too near each other in
sequence. Is this not a strange Europe after all that happened
in the World War?

December g, Thursday, Last Monday, December 6, I had a
long talk with Dr, Schacht. He spoke freely, insisting that what
we said was not registered in the Secret Police office. I was not
so sure as he seemed to be. I told him we are retiring about
January i. He said he hoped to have us at his house before
we go.

I showed him a copy of the interview I gave the Associated
Press in Norfolk last August 4 and told him about Ambassador
Dieckhoff ’s protest against this to Secretary Hull. Schacht read
all I had said and then added: ‘There was no reason for a
protest, none at all.’’ I told him that I thought Von Mackensen,
the Under-Secretary in the German Foreign Office, had done
this, not Von Neurath. He made no reply. Hitherto he has
always seemed to be in agreement with Von Neurath, not his
son-in-law Von Mackensen.

I then told Schacht abouj: my confidential letter to Hull being
published in the New York papers on September 4, appearing
as if I had spoken it at Williamstown, Massachusetts, against
the Numberg Congress. Schacht was not surprised though he
seemed not to have heard of the Foreign Office attitude in pro-
testing to Washington either in August or September. But he
then went on to say I was very popular with the German
people, especially among the educated and professional people.
I have seen considerable evidence of this, particularly in the
invitations from German universities to deliver lectures, but
Schacht had not given such facts before, though we have
generally agreed on nearly all matters of international concern.

Schacht later talked of his position as being uncertain. If he
had to give up his bank presidency, he said he would go to the
United States. As yet, he said, that was not to be defimtely con-
sidered, and he was not sure what he would do. He said : “I am,
as you know, no longer Economics Minister. That is General
Goering’s job now, and he knows little about the problems
before him.” I inferred from what Schacht said about the

442 JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938

people’s opposition to the Nazis, especially business people, that
he thinks the Nazi regime will be overthrown.

December ii. Saturday, I had a conversation this morning
with Baron von Neurath. There was nothing new but we re-
viewed existing conditions. I asked him about the colonial
question, so much discussed during the last month. He said
Germany cannot produce more than 8o per cent of her
necessary foodstuffs and Germany has a population increase of
500,000 a year. Then he stressed the subject of land shortage.
He added : “We shall not get our colonies back in several years,
but we must have them.”

I said to him : You know modern populations will not emi-
grate. Nearly all people wish to live in big cities where un-
employment is great. People simply will not leave great cities
and you know that the city populations constitute nearly three-
fourths of the people in England, Germany and the United
States. How will colonies help solve your economic problem?
He insisted : ‘*We would get raw materials from colonies.” I
replied: Yes, but the cost of raw materials from colonies is
always greater than their cost through international trade. I
gave illustrations.

He insisted on the colony demand. I know Germany is en-
titled to some colonies and conceded her right to their restora-
tion through negotiation. But my reference to trade relations
led Von Neurath to state again that he supported Secretary
Hull on the subject of international trade. But, he added,
“Germany will not change her policy,” which is one of extreme
barriers against imports.

When I asked him about the possibility of a four-power pact
(England, Germany, France and Italy), he promptly said it
could not be arranged. He did not give the reasons, but I in-
ferred that he meant that no reduction of armaments would be
agreed to.

When I asked him if he knew I had not referred to Germany
in any address I had made in the United States, he said: “Yes,
Dieckhoff, our Ambassador in Washington, informed me that
the newspaper stories of September 4 were taken from a con-
fidential letter you had sent to Secretary Hull.” I reminded

JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28 , I938 443

him of what I had more than once said to him about my not
attending Nurnberg Party shows. He said he understood my
position. It was rather curious in view of the protests which
were made in Washington,

When I was about to leave he asked my wife and me to dine
with him if we could. I told him I was afraid we could not do
SO5 it being about Christmas time and the date of our departure
still uncertain.

December 14. Tuesday. How our modern civilization drifts
backward towards medievalism ! Today the Czechoslovak
Minister called, tremendously concerned about the fate of his
country because democratic countries do nothing and thus give
Mussolini, Hitler and Japan increasing sway over the world.
He said Russia, though an ally of his country and France, is
helpless.

Yesterday the Russian Charge d’ Affaires came to see me and
insisted that democratic countries, England, France and the
United States, wish his country to save China without their
assistance. Russia, said he, will not do that, but she would
co-operate with those countries if they would help China.

After the Czechoslovak Minister left this morning, the
Chinese Ambassador came to talk again about his country’s
dangerous condition. He repeated information I had received
from Washington over the radio: that the Japanese had destroyed
American and English vessels in Chinese rivers, even killing
Americans, and that our President had demanded complete
restoration and apologies from the Emperor of Japan. He
wanted to know whether the United States would really do
anything. I could not give any assurance though I agreed with
him that democracies must save China or themselves soon come
into grave danger. We parted sadly, he saying his country
might have to be subjugated and I acknowledging that modern
civilization seemed to be on the verge of disaster.

At no‘on I sent a message to Roosevelt summarizing what
had been said and giving my opinion that if the United States
and England did not stop Japan, our people would come to
realize in a year or two what their position was. I advised a
boycott. If that did not succeed, I said, our navy and part of

444 JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 2^,

the British fleet should join and appear in Chinese waters. The
Italian and German peoples are not yet willing to go to war
against China, or even against England. I hope my opinions do
not reach Hitler as some other confidential messages of mine
have done. Anyway, it seemed my duty to send such a warning.

December ig. Sunday, The last few days of luncheons and
dinners have been almost unbearable to me, being busy all the
time in the Embassy office. And we have declined more than
we could accept. High officials like Von Neurath have said they
hoped to have us to dinner and now their invitations have
failed to be sent. But German university and business men have
crowded us with their invitations. Today we were with the
Giebels, two days ago the Alberts, a day or two before a promi-
nent bank president. In all these cases, fifteen to twenty guests
were present, all very frankly revealing their opposition to
the Hitler regime, none giving the “Heil Hitler’’ greeting
or wearing the Party decorations, even when some wore
uniforms.

On Thursday, December i6, I went to Leipzig, my old uni-
versity, to deliver a lecture on George Washington. I had been
asked so many times since I have been in Berlin that I finally
accepted, but I asked a personal friend there to see that no
Party demonstrations were made. Pictures of men in Hitler
uniforms, a flag behind me as I spoke, or an audience shouting
“Heil Hitler” would have been reported to the United States
in a way to ridicule both me and the university where I got my
Ph.D. in 1900. Therefore I made my tactful request a week
before.

When I arrived a large reception was given by Professor
Wartburg. A score of professors were present. Conversations,
as in Berlin, criticized the Hitler regime. When I appeared in
the famous old university lecture room where Wundt, the dis-
tinguished philosopher, used to lecture, there was a vast crowd,
students, professors, and persons whom I had seen years ago.
Mrs, Arnold Liebisch, wife of the deceased book dealer whom
I knew so well when a student in Leipzig, sat just in front of
me. And Miss Gray, the English woman who used to entertain
students, was beside her. Miss Gray looked little older than in

JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938 445

1 899. She had been visiting ancient Leipzig and remained a few
days longer to hear what I might say.

I noticed a number of uniforms as I entered the reception
room and a few people greeted each other in the Hitler manner,
but none did that for me. It was a university crowd and
the conversations were most cordial and liberal. It took me an
hour to read my Washington address as I had to make each
sentence as clear as possible, the university having insisted on
an English delivery. To my surprise, the audience understood
well enough to applaud statements and laugh at jokes I made.
More people in Germany speak and understand English than
anywhere else I have ever been where English is not the native
language.

After the address a dinner was given and once more people
talked freely to me and even to one another. Leipzig Univer-
sity professors are not satisfied with their situation, even less
satisfied than Berlin professors seem to be. I was glad to see
once more the old university where I first learned history in a
critical manner. The old part of the city was much as it used to
be when I was there.

December 20. Monday, We called on the French Ambassador
and Madame Frangois-Poncet this afternoon at 5 o’clock.
Madame Fran§ois-Poncet reported that, in her opinion, the
Hohenzollerns and the conservatives in general are restless and
more bitter than ever. She said she had heard much talk of
that sort. But, she added, the leaders of the opposition are so
indiscreet that their attitude and plans will be fully revealed to
the Nazis and there may be another killing like that of June

30. 1934*

I have heard, and already recorded, much apposition talk,
but I do not think a revolt or effort to overthrow Hitler will
come in the near future. Everybody knows h«re how cruelly
Hitler-Goering-Goebbels would act if any more opposition is
made and consequently nothing will be done, unless the arniy
offers a solid front for a change. But so far as one can j*udge,
the army is under such control that its opposition chiefs can do
nothing.

A little later the French Ambassador said: ^‘You are going

446 JUNE 5 , 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938

away at a good time. In my opinion there will be war next
spring. One main reason is that Mussolini’s situation in Italy is
so bad that he will resort to war to save himself. He wants con-
trol of the Mediterranean and all the French and Spanish
possessions in North Africa. In order to get these, Germany will
be called on to help him, and Germany will be given Austria
and Czechoslovakia. But all the Danube peoples are more
nervous than ever and closer to France than ever before. If Italy
and Germany go to war for these areas, we shall have to attack
them and England will support us. This is the reason England
cannot lend naval assistance to China, nor can we.”

I then said : But if France and England would co-operate
with the United States in a boycott of Japan, the war on China
would be stopped in two months. Can’t you do something for
this co-operation before it is too late? He agreed that a real
boycott would have the effect I indicated, but he said that
business people in democratic countries would delay and resist
so much that nothing would be done; and, therefore, next
spring would be the Mussolini-Hitler time to begin war.

I asked him whether he thought the German masses would
support a war. He said : ‘^Yes, they have nothing else to do, if
ordered to go to war, but after a few battles they might refuse
to fight.” My opinion is somewhat the same, except I do not
think Hitler is quite ready and so will hold Mussolini back
another year.

December 21. Tuesday, At a luncheon given us today as a
farewell by Dr. Schacht, conversations were as free and critical
as I have ever heard in Germany. Dr. Schacht’s removal from
his directorship of the Economics Ministry may be taken as one
cause. But the head of the International General Electric Com-
pany here as well as others from banks and industrial plants
were even more outspoken. They were most fearful of the
Hitler- regime. One thing which worried the electric company
chief was the order by Hitler to give up his great administrative
building which represents a 10,000,000 mark investment for the
company. The company is to be allowed only 6,000,000 marks
He said he told Hitler’s official spokesman: ‘‘Then I will leave
Germany and settle in eastern France.” What Hitler said when

JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938 447

told this was not stated, but it is clear enough that the electric
man would be imprisoned if he tried to leave Germany.

Schacht spoke of the defeat of Germany in 1918 as wholly
due to Woodrow Wilson’s bringing America into the World
War. But I said: Wilson’s Fourteen Points were the one great
promise of international peace and co-operation and every
country on both sides had helped to defeat his purpose. Don’t
you think Wilson, fifty years from now, will be regarded as one
of the greatest Presidents the United States has ever had? He
evaded an answer but turned his attention to the Japanese-
Chinese war and opposed Germany’s alliance with Japan. Then
he showed the true German attitude: "If the United States
would stop the Japanese war and leave Germany to have her
way in Europe, we would have world peace.”

I did not comment and others also failed to make remarks.
Schacht meant what the army chiefs of 1914 meant when they
invaded Belgium, expecting to conquer France in six weeks:
z.^., domination and annexation of neighbouring little countries,
especially north and east. Much as he dislikes Hitler’s dictator-
ship, he, as most other eminent Germans, wishes annexation —
without war if possible, with war, if the United States will keep
hands off. Much as I admire Schacht for some of his courageous
acts, I am now afraid he would not make a good American if
he migrated.

December 23, Thursday. Yesterday a most responsible official
here from the old regime and still in office came to see me.
He is in a position to know a great deal about the drift of things
in Hitler’s autocracy. He said close friends reported to him
that Dr. Schacht is apt to be killed any time, especially next
spring. I heard this rumour yesterday. It has been repeated
since by another visitor. I wonder if I should send a confidential
note warning Schacht before I leave.

Today the Minister from Switzerland came to say farewell.
He talked of his country and its dangerous position : ""Propa-
ganda for Nazi annexation to Germany goes on there all the
time and my government does not dare to try to stop it. The
Germans plan to annex Austria peaceably or even by war,
ultimately, if necessary, and I see no way to avoid another great

448 JUNE 5 , 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938

war unless the United States, England and France co-operate
without further delay ’’

A letter from the President today says he understood my
position here and my need to remain until March i as I had ex-
plained to him at his Hyde Park home, but the German Foreign
Office had compelled him to recall me by January i. This
was not wholly surprising, except for my talk two weeks ago with
Von Neurath, who is very clever and who practically denied
any such intervention. I may be wrong, but I believe that
Under-Secretary Welles may have used his influence with the
President. I wrote the President as much today. While I know
Hitler-Goering-Goebbels might wish my recall, I am sure the
chiefs of the Foreign Office realize how free I would be in the
United States to describe the system here in case I were asked
to leave. Anyway I am planning to learn the truth of things
when I go to Washington. I have been told that Welles has been
a definite irritation to the State Department ever since last May.

The Chinese Ambassador and his wife called this afternoon.
He still hopes and pleads that the United States and England
will put a stop to the Japanese murder of his people. He said
he was leaving tonight for Paris. While he did not say so, I
believe he is going to protest against French concessions to
Japan in French zones of influence in China I told him to
repeat in Paris what he had told me.

December 26. Sunday. I went to Dr. Schacht’s house in
Dahlem. I wished especially to see Schacht whose life is said to
be in danger, but he and his wife were away at their country
home about fifty miles from Berlin. I left my card with a few
words, carefully written, designed to suggest a possible conver-
sation. More I did not dare say lest it endanger him more. As
we came away from Schacht’s home, Herbert Goering, nephew
of the general who has taken Schacht’s place as economic
dictator, passed us looking at our car. I am afraid he reported
my visit to the government.

In the afternoon we gave a reception to all our staff people,
the consular service people. Military and Naval Attaches, and
the journalists. There were "some seventy guests. It was a de-
lightful meeting.

JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938 449

I forgot to note that my wife and I went to the old Reichstag
building on our way home from Schacht’s house. There we
saw the so-called anti-Communist pictures about which we
had heard. It was the most shameful exhibit I have ever seen.
No really intellectual person would ever put up such pictures
as the thousands we saw, especially not in this famous old legis-
lative haU. The pictures showed Communist contrivances in all
countries in the world, and the Communists were all Jews. The
pictures showed murders, rapes, thefts, revolutions and seizures
of governments. Not a crime one could think of but Jews and
Communists were performing it. There were two or three thou-
sand visitors present. I caimot see how any intelligent govern-
ment official would allow such a show, which concluded with
Mussolini and Hitler saving all mankind.

September 20, ig^S. Tuesday. Having kept no daily account
of things since I left Berlin, I must now review briefly what
happened.

We left Berlin on December 29, driving to Hamburg to get
on the Manhattan, an American ship. When we walked about
the boat, we found that more than half of the second-class
passengers were Germans hoping to locate in the United States.
More than half of these were Jews. But at our table in the dining-
room there were several Nazis or Nazi sympathizers, one
a West Virginia woman, the wife of the Yugoslav Minister to
London. She described to us the London situation where there
are apparently many aristocratic Fascists or Nazis now.

There were some interesting newspaper correspondents from
Spain on board. They were going home to the United States
hoping to tell the real truth about Mussolini’s and Hitler’s
performances in that historic country. They are absolute
opponents of Italian-German interference in Spain. I expressed
my doubts that the American press would allow them to report
just what was going on in that country.

On the last night of the year 1937, our ship set sail from
Southampton for New York, where we arrived without serious
storms on January 8. Before we reached the harbour, more than
a score of journalists had managed to get on the ship and were
urging all kinds of interviews. I could not give the facts about

p

450 JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938

my resignation, or recall, or even about what I thought was
being planned by Hitler, until my arrival in Washington and
my interviews with the President and Secretary Hull.

When I saw the President and told him a little of what I
thought of Under-Secretary Welles and his methods, no reply
was made. When I talked with Secretary Hull, he confirmed
in part what I thought had been done to recall me when it had
been understood that I was to retire in March, 1938. For me
to have gone back to Berlin on November i, and for my wife
to have spent over $1,000 for furniture, became a disgrace when
I received notice on November 23 to return in January. There
were and are still officials in the State Department who do not
like me or the things I tried to stand for.

Invitations to lecture piled up on my desk from aU parts of
the country. I spoke in Baltimore twice, in New York several
times, and in many other places, being paid liberally for my
efforts. When these appointments were ended, in the spring,
my wife and I returned to our farm near Round Hill, Virginia.

On May 28, my wife failed to join me, as usual, at break-
fast, and I discovered that she had died from a heart attack
during the night in her room. It was the greatest shock that
ever came to me. Nobody had dreamed that she had any
serious illness, although our physician in Berlin had warned her
to climb steps slowly. She had a moderate heart trouble, and
she had exerted herself socially more than I had. She was only
sixty-two years old, and I was sixty-eight. But there she lay,
stone dead, and there was no help for it; and I was so sur-
prised and sad I could hardly decide what to do.

I have been four and a half years in Europe with the hope
of serving my country. How much one could do is an open
question. The present-day world has learned nothing from the
World War. Instead of keeping the treaties of 1919-23, nearly
all peoples have violated them. Twice as much money is being
spent now each year in preparation for another war as was
spent in 1913, in spite of the fact that nearly all peoples are
bearing the greatest debts known to history. Shall we be con-
fronted by another world war? And would isolation be possible
for any great industrial country?

With war preparations and the raising of trade barriers be-

JUNE 5 , 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 28, I938 45I

yond anything known to modern history, another method of
government has been adopted in Rome, Berlin and Tokyo.
Over that vast area freedom of religion has ceased to exist and
universities no longer govern themselves. In a single country
1,600 professors and teachers in high schools have been dis-
missed. Leaders in several countries have undertaken to dismiss,
expel, imprison or kill Jews. There is no doubt that they
have at times profiteered, but what other class or people has
been free of such members? Anyone who knows the facts of
1914-20 cannot forget that Jews fought bravely on both sides of
the terrible war, and some outstanding members of the race
gave millions of dollars to save the helpless, even starving,
Germans in 1918-20.

In a vast region where religious freedom is denied, where
intellectual initiative and discovery are not allowed, and where
race hatreds are cultivated daily, what can a representative of
the United States do? Democratic peoples must maintain their
faiths at home ; their representatives must try to improve inter-
national co-operation ; and on proper occasions they must re-
mind men of the importance of world peace, easier commercial
relations, and the significance of democratic civilization for
which peoples have struggled since the sixteenth century. With
these ideals in mind, I felt that I must represent my country
the best I could while dwelling among the Germans, who are
by nature more democratic than any other great race in Europe.

Could one be successful? I made addresses on suitable
occasions and described our international difficulties, never
criticizing the government to which I had been sent. When
invitations to partisan affairs were sent to me, I maintained the
attitude which our country has maintained since the Presidency
of George Washington. Was it the duty of representatives of
democratic countries to attend conferences where democracy
was ridiculed and attacked? I cannot think so.

The logical outcome of vast war preparations is another war,
and what would another war leave of modern civilization?
There are curious misunderstandings. Great business and in-
dustrial groups failed to recognize the necessity of international
co-operation after 1920. Some of their chiefs defeated world
peace efforts at Geneva more than once because they thought

452 JUNE 5, 1937 TO SEPTEMBER 285 I938

the sale of arms and war materials more important than world
peace. Other groups insisted in 1923 and 1930 on trade barriers
which made debt payments impossible So many influential men
have failed to see that inventions, industrial revolution, and
financial relations have brought mankind to a point where co-
operation and peace are the first conditions of prosperity for
the masses of men everywhere.